§ 12011 Vocational School Accreditation Fees

• •The state education chief can apply to become a federal‑approved accrediting agency for private vocational schools.
• •If the chief gets that approval, they are allowed to charge a fee for the accreditation work.
• •The fee can only be as high as the actual cost of doing the accreditation.

A private cooking school wants its programs approved so it can get federal money. The state education chief applies to the U.S. Office of Education, gets recognized as an accrediting agency, and then charges the cooking school a fee to pay for the time spent reviewing the school.

Because the law says the chief can apply for recognition and, once approved, can set a fee that just covers the cost of the accreditation work, the cooking school has to pay that fee to get the approval.