YSO Academy Earns IACET Accreditation: What It Means for You
We have exciting news to share. YSO Academy is now an Accredited Provider with the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET). IACET accreditation is a milestone we have been working toward for a long time, and we are thrilled to tell you what it means for the people who matter most to us—the professionals and Plan B parents who take our courses.
What Is IACET?
IACET is the organization behind the Continuing Education Unit, or CEU. The CEU concept was created in 1968 through a joint effort between IACET and the U.S. Department of Education. The goal was to establish a reliable, standardized way to measure non-credit professional development—something that had never existed before. One IACET CEU equals ten contact hours of participation in a structured continuing education experience delivered under qualified instruction.
Today, IACET is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Accredited Standards Development Organization. The ANSI/IACET Standard for Continuing Education and Training is the benchmark used by organizations around the world to develop, deliver, and evaluate professional training. IACET CEUs are recognized by professional associations, regulatory boards, corporations, and universities across a wide range of industries.
What Does Accredited Provider Status Actually Mean?
Any organization can offer a training course. Becoming an IACET Accredited Provider is different. It means YSO Academy submitted to a rigorous application and review process that included hands-on evaluation by a commission of continuing education professionals. Our policies, processes, instructional design methods, and evaluation practices were all measured against the nine essential elements of the ANSI/IACET Standard.
In practical terms, accreditation tells you that our qualifying courses meet internationally recognized standards in areas like these:
- Clear, measurable learning outcomes tied to each course
- Qualified instructors who never stop learning
- Sound instructional design grounded in adult learning principles
- Meaningful evaluation of both learner achievement and program quality
- A commitment to continuous improvement across every program we offer
This is not a rubber stamp. It is external, independent verification that YSO Academy delivers training the way training should be delivered.
What This Means for Youth-Serving Organizations
If you are a camp director, school administrator, children’s ministry leader, or anyone responsible for training staff who work with kids, IACET accreditation gives you something concrete to point to. When your board, your insurance carrier, or a licensing body asks about the quality of your professional development program, you can tell them your staff trained with an IACET Accredited Provider.
Qualifying YSO Academy courses now carry IACET Continuing Education Units. Your staff can earn CEUs that are recognized across industries and jurisdictions—not just certificates of completion, but a standardized credential backed by the national standard for continuing education and training. Those CEUs can count toward professional development requirements, licensing renewals, and organizational compliance goals, depending on your specific regulatory context.
We encourage you to verify with your specific regulatory boards or credentialing organizations that they accept IACET CEUs. IACET maintains a directory of organizations that recognize their CEUs at iacet.org.
What This Means for Plan B Parents
If you are a foster parent, adoptive parent, or stepparent—what we call a Plan B parent—you already know that parenting other people’s children comes with a learning curve that never quite flattens out. You deserve training that is built with the same rigor as the best professional development programs in the country, not just well-meaning advice wrapped in a webinar.
IACET accreditation means our Plan B parent courses go through the same quality framework as our professional courses. The learning outcomes are clear. The content is grounded in evidence. The instructional design reflects how adults actually learn. And when you complete a qualifying course, you earn IACET CEUs that document your investment in becoming the best parent you can be.
For foster parents in particular, those CEUs may count toward state-mandated training hours. Check with your caseworker or licensing agency to confirm.
Why We Pursued IACET Accreditation
Child safety training is serious work. The people who protect children—whether they are professionals in youth-serving organizations or parents raising kids from hard places—deserve training that meets the highest standard available. We did not want to just claim quality. We wanted to prove it.
The IACET accreditation process forced us to examine every aspect of how we design, deliver, and evaluate our courses. It made us better. And it created a framework for continuous improvement that will keep making us better as we grow.
Our Commitment
As an IACET Accredited Provider, YSO Academy offers IACET CEUs for its learning events that comply with the ANSI/IACET Continuing Education and Training Standard.
You can verify our accreditation at any time through the IACET Accredited Providers directory. We are proud to be part of this community of organizations committed to educational excellence.
What’s Next
We are already at work adding more IACET CEU-eligible courses. Whether you are training camp counselors in child abuse prevention, helping school staff understand mandatory reporting, or learning how to navigate the unique challenges of raising other people’s children, we want every course you take with us to reflect this standard of quality.
Explore our current course offerings at ysoacademy.com, and look for the IACET Accredited Provider logo on our courses. If you have questions about CEUs or how our accreditation applies to your training needs, reach out. We are here to help.
