Professional Licensure

Requirements for Professional Licensure

Carroll College is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, an institutional accreditation body recognized by the Council of Higher Education Accreditation and/or the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. Carroll College is authorized to grant educational degrees and some of these degrees are designed or advertised to meet educational requirements to obtain a specific federal, state, or professional licensure or certification that is required for employment in an occupation. Licensure requirements may differ depending on what state or territory an individual is seeking employment. In order to inform prospective and current students on which programs meet state licensure requirements, Carroll College is required to maintain and update this Professional Licensure Disclosure.

Carroll College is committed to ensuring information about education requirements for licensure or certification are up to date. Despite our efforts, state licensing boards or certification organizations may change their requirements without notifying Carroll College. In addition, there may be further requirements such as background checks, professional exams, finger prints, years of experience, or probationary periods. If you intend on gaining professional licensure/certification in a state other than Montana, Carroll College strongly encourages you, before beginning an academic program, to contact the relevant licensing entity and obtain information regarding the specific requirements in that state. Furthermore, some states require authorization prior to a student beginning clinical or field experience. Please speak with your program director or internship/clinical/field experience coordinator if you intend to obtain that experience in a state other than Montana.

All prospective and currently enrolled students are encouraged to review the relevant professional licensure disclosure for the state they intend to live and the Carroll program they are seeking to complete. Carroll College defines a prospective student as degree or credential-seeking student who has applied for admission to Carroll College, but has not yet enrolled. While our programs are designed to meet the educational requirements for licensure in Montana, the College is not a professional licensure or certification organization. State professional licensing boards make the ultimate determination, based on their regulations and requirements, if an individual is qualified and eligible to practice within their jurisdiction.

NC-SARA

NC-SARA Seal

Montana is a member of NC-SARA, an agreement among member states, districts, and territories that establishes comparable national standards for interstate offering of postsecondary distance education. Carroll College is obligated to disclose whether our face-to-face and online programs that lead to professional licensure or certification meet individual state standards of our students' home states. You can view NC-SARA’s professional licensure directory and this page contains disclosures for individual states and programs. Information regarding filing complaints related to State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement standards can be found here and may be directed to the Montana University System Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, 560 N. Park Avenue, PO Box 203201, Helena, Montana 59620-3201, 406-449-9124. For more information, please see the Commissioner of Higher Education's website regarding the complaint process for institutions outside the Montana University System.

Program-Specific Professional Licensure Information

Please review the information below to determine if Carroll College's academic programs meet the educational requirements for professional licensure/certification in the state you intend to reside/work.

Accounting

Educational requirements to sit for the CPA exam are determined by the individual state boards of accountancy. Carroll College’s major in Accounting and Strategic Finance combined with the Masters of Accountancy (MACC) was designed to satisfy the curriculum requirements to sit for the CPA exam and the curriculum requirements to later become licensed as a CPA.

As disclosed in the table, a student at Carroll Collage should consider three possible scenarios to meet the requirements to sit for the CPA exam, depending upon the individual state requirements: (1) Accounting and Strategic Finance major is sufficient alone (2) major in Accounting and Strategic Finance combined with additional six credits (for example, six-credits of accounting internships or MACC courses), and (3) major in Accounting and Strategic Finance combined with the MACC.  International students at Carroll College may sit for the CPA exam in Montana. Please bear in mind that a state may only require an undergraduate degree to sit for the CPA exam, but may require 150 credits to become licensed as a CPA in that state. Those requirements may be met with Carroll College’s major in Accounting and Strategic Finance combined with the MACC, and that information is reflected in the table.

Carroll College is in the process of determining if the undergraduate program combined with the Masters of Accountancy meets the examination and licensure requirements in all states. Please review the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) links to information on CPA licensure requirements in all states for more information regarding educational requirements to sit for the CPA exam and educational requirements for licensure in all U.S. jurisdictions.

Carroll's Teacher Education program provides majors leading to teacher licensure by the State of Montana Board of Public Education with reciprocity granted in a large number of individual states. Since teacher licensure is determined by each individual state education agency, graduates who desire to teach in another state must apply for teacher licensure in that state and follow the licensure requirements for that state. Typically, states will issue provisional/probationary teaching licenses and graduates can begin teaching upon graduation from Carroll. These provisional/probationary teaching licenses allow graduates up to 3 years to complete the requirements for full professional licensure.

The Montana Board of Public Education is located at: 46 N Last Chance Gulch, PO Box 200601, Helena, MT 59620. Please review the 50 State Comparison - Teacher Reciprocity Spreadsheet for more information regarding licensure requirements across the country. You may also access the contact information for each state's Department of Education.

The Civil Engineering program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. Students graduating in engineering from Carroll College are qualified to sit for the FE examination, barring any legal or criminal circumstances that could hinder their application for the exam.

The FE exam is a national examination and can be taken at any testing facility in the United States. Successful passage of the FE examination allows the student to then apply for Engineer Intern licensure in any state. There are no limitations on where they can apply. Once the student becomes an Engineer Intern and enters the profession, their progression to become a Professional Engineer can take many pathways and that journey is not dependent upon their degree from Carroll College.

On February 22, 2019, the Carroll College Board of Trustees, through a campus-wide program prioritization process, discontinued the Engineering Science program. Effective Fall 2019, new students will not be admitted to the program. Current Engineering Science students will be taught to graduation with an ABET-accredited degree. The Engineering Accreditation Commission is located at 415 N Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21201 or via email at: http://www.abet.org.

Carroll College’s Financial Planning program is a CFP Board-Registered program that prepares students to sit for the CFP® exam. Graduates from the Carroll College program, who pass the CFP® exam and fulfill the experience and ethics requirements, may call themselves a CFP® professional. There are no individual state certification requirements nor is there state-specific licensing for the CFP® certification.

Accreditation

Carroll College's Master of Social Work program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education's (CSWE) Board of Accreditation (BOA).

Accreditation of a baccalaureate or master's social work program by the BOA indicates it meets or exceeds standards of program quality evaluated through a peer-review accreditation process. An accredited program has sufficient resources to meet its mission and goals and the BOA has verified that it demonstrates compliance with all sections of the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS).

Accreditation applies to all program options, which include locations and delivery methods.

Accreditation provides reasonable assurance about the quality of the program and the competence of students graduating from the program. 

Review our program's accredited status in CSWE's Directory of Accredited Programs. For more information about social work accreditation, contact CSWE's Department of Social Work Accreditation.

Council On Social Work Education - Form AS 4(M)

All programs accredited by the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) Commission on Accreditation (COA) are required to measure and report student learning outcomes. All students are assessed using a minimum of two measures on their mastery of the nine competencies that comprise the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) and any additional competencies programs may choose to add. Per the requirement of CSWE COA’s recognizing body, the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), and accreditation standard 4.0.3, programs must post this form publicly on its website and routinely update (minimally every 2 years) its findings.

The link below will open the program's most recent CSWE Form AS-4M, reporting student learning outcomes from the 2022-2023 academic year.

Council On Social Work Education - Form AS 4(M)

CCNE Accreditation LogoCarroll’s Nursing program is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), http://www.ccneaccreditation.org, and is approved by the Montana State Board of Nursing. Carroll College’s nursing program prepares students for the NCLEX exam and any student who graduates from our program and passes the NCLEX exam will be licensed to work in all 50 states. The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) is located at: One Dupont Circle, NW Suite 530, Washington DC, 20036. Paper copies of Accreditation documents are available for review from the Office of Institutional Effectiveness. Student complaints can be submitted to the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education at 2500 Broadway, PO Box 203201, Helena, MT 59620-3201 or 406-444-6570.