Accreditation is a process that educational institutions must undergo to confirm that the courses and programs they offer meet the educational standards set by the United States Department of Education (USDE) or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). The accreditation is also applicable for educational institutions that offer online courses and various other degree programs.

Accredited online high schools and colleges offer the highest quality of education available as students will be able to trust the institution. Students will also qualify for federal loans and grants even for online courses on the basis of a good accreditation. Moreover, degrees and certifications offered by accredited online schools and colleges will help students make the most of placement opportunities in their field of interest.

Institutional and programmatic accreditation are the two main types of classification. Institutional accreditation reviews the educational institution while programmatic accreditation reviews the various programs and courses offered by the institution.

On the basis of institutional accreditation, schools and colleges are further bifurcated as follows.

Regional accreditation
The main focus of regional accreditation is for six specific regions in the country. The process evaluates over 3000 institutions spread over the specific regions to offer high-quality education. These institutions include private, public, not for profit, and those that mainly offer specific degree programs. The evaluation criteria is applicable for policies, practices, and plans implemented to meet the highest standards of education set by the USDE and CHEA.

National accreditation
National accreditation is mainly available for nontraditional educational institutions including vocational colleges, technical colleges, religious colleges, and online schools. There are two main branches of national accreditation—faith-related and career-related. The faith-related evaluation covers not-for-profit and degree-granting faith-based institutions. Moreover, career-related accreditation is applicable to for-profit institutions, nondegree-granting and single programs featured by accredited online schools and colleges. Ohio State University, Arizona State University, Utah State University, and  Pennsylvania State University among many others are popular nationally accredited institutions that offer online programs.

Programmatic accreditation
The evaluation is reserved mainly for individual programs and departments. The main difference between institutional and programmatic is that the latter awards accreditation to specific subjects and courses to schools and colleges that already have an institutional accreditation.

Based on the type of accreditation, you can further narrow down the best accredited online schools and colleges that offer part-time and full-time programs.