Analysis of the ACOTE/AOTA Memorandum of Understanding

On January 29, 2005, the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education and the American Occupational Therapy Association entered into an agreement that has been commonly referred to as their 'Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).'As background for understanding this process it is important to consider the relationship between the national member association and its credentialing arm, which is technically a separate organization.  As I have stated for many years, in my opinion, AOTA and ACOTE are functionally indistinguishable.  ACOTE is an" Associated Advisory Council " of the AOTA Executive Board. It is notable that intertwined relationships exist between the two groups since the creation of the credentialing group.ACOTE has its own Board of Directors, but ACOTE itselfis staffed by AOTA employees who all answer to the AOTA Executive Director, who answers to the AOTA Board of Directors.Accreditation income generated by ACOTE amounted to over $1.2 million of revenue for AOTA in fiscal year 2018.  That level of income, which has been relatively stable, has consistently called to question the actual separation between the two groups.  Source: September 2017 Report of the Treasurer (Karen Sames).I am not an attorney but I am now concerned that USDE and CHEA requirements for disentanglement may not be satisfied.  I have always suggested that people can decide for themselves what kind of real separation exists in context of the outlined financi...
Source: ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog - Category: Occupational Health Tags: OT Education OT practice Source Type: blogs