Under the 2001 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards, programs working toward accreditation are first in precandidacy and then candidacy. Precandidacy is "a time that a new program and its institutional administration engages in a period of preliminary planning, securing resources, and hiring faculty before submitting an application" (Handbook of Accreditation Standards and Procedures, 5th ed., 2003, p. 3).
Candidacy is the "first step toward the initial accreditation process" (Handbook of Accreditation Standards and Procedures, 5th ed., 2003, p. 3).
Once a program is granted initial accreditation, it "automatically covers those graduating classes of students who were admitted during or after the academic year, August to June, in which the program was granted candidacy.
Students admitted prior to the academic year in which the program was granted candidacy [such as precandidacy] will not have graduated from a Council-accredited social work education program" (Handbook of Accreditation Standards and Procedures, 5th ed., 2003, p. 6).