One that does not happen often I hope but this is the question.

A person goes to a college in the 1980's, it is accredited at the time, perhaps on probation by the accreditation group but still recognized by Dept of Education.

In the latter 1980s or early 1990's they lose their accreditation. And slightly latter they close. ( Private college)

If you look them up today on the Dept of Education web site they do not show up accredited,

So today is that degree from an Accredited school or not ? And if so, how do you prove it.

If you study for several years, get a degree, it is accredited when you get it, now they tell you it is not since it does not appear on the list of approved schools.

Is there a list of approved schools from the 80s somewhere that can be used to present your case that you degree is accredited ?

Sorry to ramble, but I knew the school I went to lost its accreditation, as well it should have since it changed from when I went there over the years. When I worked for the Federal Government my degree was accepted since it was still accredited when I was hired and went thought back ground checks.

Since it was accepted by the Feds, the state government and local police accepted it without question when I worked for them.

** Even went to law school using it back in the day.

Fast forward to today and I need it for some plans and it was rejected because it is not showing up on their list. And they say there is no way to verify it was accredited and even if it "WAS" it is not now.

I do have my first three years though Missouri Univ, so short of taking another year of college for a new degree ( which I am looking into) any ideas ?

All of my religious degrees are from non accredited colleges, that I know and understand, as are many religious degrees

I believe the US Dept of Education's role here is not to actually do the accrediting of schools, but simply to maintain a database of accreditations done by other nationally-recognized organizatons. So I think what you want to do is find the organization that accredited your school back in the 1980's, and then see if they can verify the school's status back then. Does the search on the Dept of Education website give you a contact for further investigation?

http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/Search.aspx

No, it does not even show up any longer in the searches.. They changed owners and names several times in the last 80s and early 90's I will try writing to each of the accreditation groups, no idea who it was back then. Won't even get into the transcript issues that we discuss here for closed private colleges.

If you check other schools in the area you can probably find an organization that does accreditation in the state or region. For example in the southeast US the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges is a common agency:

Commission on Colleges

Give them a call and see if they know about your school.