For the 733 private schools in Virginia, accreditation through the Virginia Council for Private Education (VCPE) and its 11 member organizations has its pros and cons.

On the upside, accreditation means a school meets or exceeds academic, health and safety standards established, in part, by the state of Virginia and adopted by state-recognized accrediting organizations.

"VCPE state recognized accreditation offers assurances that a reputable educational association communicates with a school on a regular basis," says George J. McVey, president of the VCPE. "The goal in accreditation is continuous improvement and adherence to quality standards through self study and subsequent evaluations by an impartial team of peers. This process is monitored on a timely basis by VCPE."

Accreditation is a way for parents to tell whether a school measures up, said James D. Grizzard, headmaster of Amelia Academy, a school with 175 students in preschool through 12th grade that is accredited by the Virginia Independent Schools Association.

"You need guidelines for whatever you do," he said. "It's a way of holding schools accountable."

His viewpoint was buttressed by John B. McGinty, headmaster of Benedictine High School in Richmond. The Catholic, military high school with 275 boys is accredited by the Virginia Association of Independent Schools.

VAIS, McGinty said, looks at 76 areas "ranging from how you prepare food, to how you conduct fire drills, to how classes are taught." The standards cover a wide range from academics to financial management and student safety.

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After a visiting accrediting team goes through a school from top to bottom, McGinty said, it "leaves a school with a lengthy and accurate report that reflects whether you are doing what you think you are doing." Parents, in turn, "look for accreditation to verify that the schools are actively trying to maintain quality," he said.

But others view accreditation as expensive, time consuming and unnecessary, a designation that's good perhaps only for marketing purposes.

"It's a waste of money," said Dr. Kenneth R. Crain, principal of Landmark Christian School, a faith-based, K through 12 program in Henrico County with 205 students.

Landmark Christian is a member of the American Association of Christian Schools and the Old Dominion Association of Church Schools, but it is not accredited through one of the 11 state-recognized accrediting organizations.

"The requirements are beyond the scope of what we want to do," Crain said. "We didn't see a need for it."

Not being accredited hasn't hampered Landmark Christian's students from being admitted to state-supported and private universities, he noted.

"We've found that if our kids made the grades, they got into the colleges of their choice," Crain said. "Since 1966, we've graduated 27 classes of students, and they have gone on to become successful doctors, lawyers, missionaries and teachers."

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Some schools are propelled toward seeking accreditation by parents or their boards.

"In general, parents want a school to be accredited, but they don't know what that means," said Steven P. Diehl, head of Veritas Classical Christian School in Richmond.

At the request of his board, the school with 190 students in grades K through nine is exploring possible accreditation. "We'll have a visit this spring by a consultant and expect to start the process in fall 2008," Diehl said. The school will have three years to complete the process, he said.

He views accreditation with a practical eye. "The real accreditation is when parents come in and write a check for tuition for one, two or three children," he said. "That means something, particularly when they are paying taxes to support public schools their children could attend."

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Indeed, tuition at Virginia's private schools averaged $4,689 in 1999-2000, the latest year for which those figures were available from the National Center for Education Statistics.

With private schools accounting for roughly one in four schools in the United States, about 11 percent of all elementary and secondary students in the nation attended private schools in 2003-04, according to the NCES.

In Virginia, 131,160 students were enrolled in private pre-kindergarten through 12 schools in fall 2003, the statistics show. But of the 733 private schools in Virginia, only 287 are accredited, according to the Virginia Council for Private Education.

School and accrediting officials said some private schools are too small or too new to be accredited. The state-recognized accrediting organizations have specific criteria regarding how long a school must be operating and how many students it must have before it can be reviewed for accreditation.

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New Hanover Christian School in Hanover County falls into that category. While it has had a preschool for 20 years, it opened a middle school in September 2006 that currently has only a sixth-grade class with seven students.

Janet S. Rusz, director of the school, hopes to expand with time. But right now, accreditation is out of the question, she said.

In checking with the Association of Christian Schools International, she said, a school must be in operation for at least three years and have at least 75 students to be considered for accreditation. And it must have all grades in the unit. For example, New Hanover must have classes in all middle school grades.

"Accreditation seems to make parents feel better," Rusz said. "It wouldn't help us do a better job, but it would help people's view of us," she said.

She described the process as tedious and onerous. "It's very time consuming. It takes mountains of paperwork and the cost is substantial, especially for a new school," she said. "Personally, if parents do their homework, they can tell whether a school is a good school or not. They don't need somebody making that determination for them."

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Nancy W. Davies, founding head of the 10-year-old Orchard House School in Richmond, said the school expects to pay about $12,000 for fees and expenses associated with its first quest for accreditation.

The girls-only middle school with 80 students in grades five through eight is undergoing review now by the Virginia Association of Independent Schools. Orchard House started the process a year ago, Davies said. A site-visiting team is expected at the school in February, with some indication by May of whether accreditation has been granted.

"We do feel the cost is worth it," she said, noting several advantages come from being accredited.

Many of the school's eighth-graders want to attend the Governor's School, a rigorous, special-focus public high school. Accreditation would make it "much easier to transfer credits" from Orchard House to the students' high schools, Davies said.

There's also a financial incentive.

"In order to receive certain matching grants, you need accreditation," she said.

Davies is familiar with the process, having worked previously at two private schools that underwent accreditation evaluation. She described it as "energizing" and helping the administration, faculty and staff to focus on the school's philosophy and objectives and to more clearly align the curriculum with those objectives.

"It has helped us to be more conscious of why we do what we do," Davies said. Because of the standards, she said, Orchard House will move toward a more centralized library.

"Right now, we have a collection of books in various classrooms," Davies said. "But this will help us formalize what we want our library ultimately to look like."

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Mark Mellusi, principal of The Discovery School of Virginia in Dillwyn, is enthusiastic about the benefits of accreditation.

He serves on the board of the Virginia Association of Independent Specialized Education Facilities, another of the accrediting organizations recognized by the state. He heads its membership and accrediting committee.

Accreditation offers membership in an organization in which teachers and administrators can have contact with other professionals.

In addition to being an accrediting body, VAISEF "is an advocacy group," Mellusi said. "It offers opportunities for networking and professional development. Those are important resources.

"When a school is accredited, you're assured there is a certain level of quality that's being met," Mellusi continued. "It's a comfort to parents and it makes it easier to transfer credits to other schools."

Transferring credits is important at the Buckingham County residential school that educates 60 students with learning disabilities, emotional problems and drug and alcohol concerns in grades six through 12. About 85 percent of The Discovery School's students transfer to a traditional school public or private after spending 12 to 18 months in the program, he said.

"Half to two-thirds of parents looking at placing their child here ask whether it is accredited," Mellusi said.

Standards for The Discovery School and other specialized education schools go beyond the normal academic, health and safety rigors for accreditation. They may include standards for residential services and clinical psychological services, he explained, while others may have to meet standards for speech and language services.

Overall, Mellusi said, accreditation offers a form of transparency assurance that an outside organization is looking at the school and offering feedback and suggestions.