CTC's planned physical therapy assisstant degree doesn't receive accreditation

Dean Whitlow likens it to going through the stages of grief -- but heavy on the shock and anger.

After more than two years of preparation, the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center was forced to delay the launch of its planned physical therapist assistant degree program last month.

Whitlow, the center's assistant director, said the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education, or CAPTE, denied the program's candidacy -- the path to accreditation -- after it appeared approval was well within reach.

"It was a shock to all of us. We didn't feel we would be denied candidacy," Whitlow said. "It was such a blow, such a discouraging thing to us and we went through all phases of anger."

Yet hope remains that the program will earn candidacy through an appeal process, and students will begin the 12-month term in August.

The Cape Girardeau School Board in March 2009 approved the associate degree program. At the time, CTC director Rich Payne said demand for physical therapist assistants was rising.

"The employers in our region need these people," Payne said.

A $148,000 grant from the WIRED Initiative of Southeast Missouri was set to help fund an occupational therapy program, too, but the funding stream dried up, Whitlow said. So the CTC trained the grant money on the launch of the physical therapist assistant program.

The CTC used the federal funds to purchase equipment and remodel space for classes. On the administration side, program coordinators worked out the articulated credit agreement with Mineral Area Community College, the degree-granting institution, sought the approval of the Missouri Coordinating Board of Higher Education, and the blessing of the U.S. Department of Education for the distribution of federal financial aid.

"There were so many steps, it seems like it was never ending," Whitlow said.

Administrators hired staff, finalized curriculum and whittled down a list of more than 200 potential students into an inaugural program class of 18.

All that was missing was the go-ahead from the accreditation commission to begin, and that seemed likely after a CAPTE representative unofficially assured CTC administrators that the program would receive candidacy, if small corrections were made, Whitlow said.

The commission, however, identified other deficiencies, and candidacy was denied.

Officials with CAPTE, which has granted specialized accreditation status to nearly 500 entry-level education programs, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Whitlow said the commission advised that some of the degree program's policies and procedures needed to be a "little meatier," among other criticisms. So, Whitlow said, program coordinators are moving through the appeals process, even bringing in a consultant to assist. A decision on candidacy is expected sometime in April, Whitlow said, and the hope is to begin the first term in August.

"This has been a huge undertaking," he said. "Hopefully this is a little bump in the road."

mkittle@semissourian.com

388-3627

Physical Therapist Assistant

The new Physical Therapy Assistant program at the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center hopes to conduct the first 12-month term beginning in August. Students entering this program must have completed prerequisite courses before being admitted to the program. This new program will allow students to earn an Associate of Applied Science degree from the CTC's partner school, Mineral Area College.