AEFE, LabelFrancÉducation, Cognia, Middle States, DELF, IB, Seal of Biliteracy: who issues each one, what it inspects, and what it quietly does not tell you.
106
LabelFrancÉd.
60
AEFE / MLF
3
Tiers
At a Glance
164
With a French label
of 244; the other 80 have none
106
LabelFrancÉducation
French Ministry for Europe & Foreign Affairs
60
AEFE / French Ministry
French curriculum, homologated by level
190
State or charter approval
legal to operate, no French review
25
With a confirmed exam
DELF/DALF or Seal of Biliteracy
Start Here
Every school card in this directory carries an Accreditation line, and most public and charter cards carry a row of program pills as well. Between them this page explains 14 different labels, and almost none of them mean what they look like they mean.
The single most useful thing to know is this: accreditation and French quality are different questions, answered by different organizations. Cognia, Middle States, NEASC and a state department of education all audit the school as an institution. Not one of them looks at the French program. Only the French labels do. And one of those, homologation, applies to specific grade levels rather than to the whole school.
So a school showing four accreditations is not four times better than one showing a single French label. 242 of the 244 schools here list at least one label of some kind, but only 164 carry a French-specific one. The other 80 are overwhelmingly public and charter programs, and they run with no French certification at all. That tells you nothing about the teaching.
How to read this on a school card: the Accreditation line under "More details" lists institutional labels, Tier 1 and Tier 2 above. The colored pills on public and charter cards (DELF, IB, French Bac, AP, Seal) are Tier 3 credentials. A private card also shows an AEFE homologation range where we could confirm it; that range, not the word "AEFE", is the part that matters.
Tier 1
These tell you the French is real
Two labels in this directory are issued by French authorities and look specifically at French teaching. They are the only ones on this page that say anything about the language at all, and even they certify very different things. The last card here is the one most families end up in: schools carrying neither.
AEFE homologation (and the MLF network)
60 schools
Granted by the French Ministry of National Education, published jointly with the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. The resulting network is coordinated by the AEFE, alongside the Mission laïque française (MLF), a French non-profit founded in 1902 that runs schools abroad.
What it actually checks
That the school actually delivers the French national curriculum to French standards: syllabus, teaching hours, teacher qualifications, assessment. It is the strongest French-specific signal a school can carry in the US.
What it does not tell you
It is granted level by level, not once for the whole school. In this directory the homologated range runs from PreK3–Kindergarten at one school to PreK3–Grade 12 at another. A school homologated through Grade 5 is not homologated for its middle school, even though the whole school will say "AEFE". Always ask which levels, and for which school year. Note also that most cards here carry the combined label "French Ministry of Education (AEFE/MLF)", which records the ministry link rather than distinguishing an AEFE-coordinated school from an MLF-run one. MLF is an operator, not an inspectorate, and being an MLF school is not itself homologation.
Awarded by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, with the process run by the AEFE through an annual application campaign. Created in 2012.
What it actually checks
A bilingual French section inside a school that follows its own national or state curriculum: a substantial share of teaching in French, French-qualified teaching staff, and a working link to the French cultural network. Awarded for a fixed term of up to five years, then re-applied for.
What it does not tell you
It is not homologation, and the two get conflated constantly. A LabelFrancÉducation school teaches its own curriculum, not the French one, and its pupils do not automatically sit French national exams. It is the most common French label in this directory because it fits US public dual-language programs, which is exactly what it was designed for.
Nobody. It is the single most common situation for a public program here.
What it actually checks
Nothing, by definition. These schools carry no AEFE homologation and no LabelFrancÉducation. Almost all of them are public and charter dual-language programs run by a US school district, where seeking a French certification is nobody’s job and rarely anybody’s budget. It is not a rule, though: a handful of US public charter schools are homologated by the French ministry, one of them all the way through Terminale.
What it does not tell you
The absence is not a verdict. Some of the strongest French immersion in the country, the Louisiana and Utah state programs among them, runs entirely without a French label. What to look at instead: how much of the day is actually taught in French, how far up the grades the program continues, whether the teachers are French-speaking natives or certified, and how many pupils sit the DELF.
These tell you the school is a real school, and nothing about French
This is the tier parents over-read. Regional and independent-school accreditation is a serious process, but it is a general audit of the institution: governance, money, safety, teaching quality. None of it examines the French program. Treat it as a floor to clear, not as a reason to choose one school over another.
Cognia (formerly SACS, NCA and NWAC)
137 schools
Cognia, a US non-profit. AdvancED, itself the Southern (SACS), North Central (NCA) and Northwest (NWAC) accrediting commissions, merged with Measured Progress in 2018, and the combined body took the name Cognia in 2019.
What it actually checks
The whole school against a standards framework: governance, finances, teaching quality, learner outcomes, improvement planning, confirmed by an external review team on a recurring cycle.
What it does not tell you
Nothing about French. Cards in this directory show it as "Cognia", "SACS/Cognia" or "NWAC/Cognia" depending on which commission accredited the school before the merger. Those are all the same accreditor. "WASC/Cognia" is a different thing: ACS WASC never merged into Cognia, and that pairing means the school holds dual accreditation from two independent bodies through one review. Cognia is also the most common accreditation in American schooling generally, so it does very little to separate one school from another.
Middle States Association Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools, an independent accreditor that began in the mid-Atlantic states and now works internationally.
What it actually checks
A self-study written by the school, then verified by a visiting peer team, against standards covering governance, finance, health and safety, teaching and student performance. Renewed on a multi-year cycle.
What it does not tell you
Nothing about French. A school can hold Middle States accreditation and teach no French at all. Several schools in this directory hold it alongside a French label, and the French label is the one doing the work.
The New England Association of Schools and Colleges, and the Accrediting Commission for Schools of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the New England and West Coast members of the same accreditation family.
What it actually checks
The same model as Cognia and Middle States: self-study, visiting team, standards on governance, resources, teaching and student learning, on a renewal cycle with interim reporting.
What it does not tell you
Nothing about French. Which of these a school holds is largely a question of geography, not of quality.
State and regional associations of independent schools. Their accreditation programs are held to account through ICAISA, the international council that reviews independent-school accreditors.
What it actually checks
Accreditation built for private schools: whether the school delivers on its own stated mission, plus governance, finances, faculty and student wellbeing. The mission-fit emphasis makes it more searching than it sounds.
What it does not tell you
Nothing about French, and the association is regional. An ISACS school in Chicago and a NYSAIS school in New York have been through comparable but separate processes.
The National Association of Independent Schools, a national membership body for private schools.
What it actually checks
Nothing. NAIS is not an accreditor; schools join it. To be eligible for membership a school must already be accredited by one of the approved state or regional associations above, so NAIS membership implies accreditation happened somewhere else.
What it does not tell you
This is the label most often misread as a quality inspection. When a school lists "NAIS", the thing worth asking for is the name of the association that actually accredited it.
The Council of International Schools (CIS) and the Educational Collaborative for International Schools (ECIS). Both grew out of the European Council of International Schools; in 2003 accreditation was split off into CIS.
What it actually checks
CIS accredits: an international-schools standard covering governance, teaching, student wellbeing and global citizenship, usually run jointly with a US regional accreditor so the school holds both.
What it does not tell you
ECIS does not accredit. It is a membership and professional-development organization, so "ECIS" on a school card means the school belongs to a network, not that it passed a review.
State education department approval and charter authorization
190 schools
The state department of education: Louisiana DOE, Utah State Board of Education, New York State Education Department, and so on. For charters, the body that granted the charter.
What it actually checks
That the school is legally allowed to operate: licensing, health and safety, staffing requirements, testing and reporting. For a charter it also means the terms of the charter contract, reviewed when the charter comes up for renewal.
What it does not tell you
This is a floor, not a signal. Every public school in the country clears it, and it says nothing about French. It appears on public and charter cards in this directory because it is the only formal approval most public programs have. Many run a strong French program with no French-specific label at all.
The last group are not school labels at all. They are credentials the student earns and keeps. They are the most concrete thing on a school card, and the easiest to verify with the school: ask how many pupils actually sat the exam last year, and how they did. Read the numbers on these five cards differently from the ones above: they count only the public and charter programs where we have confirmed the credential in writing. We hold no exam data for the 64 private schools at all, and most public rows are still unrecorded, so every figure here is a floor and the real total is higher.
DELF and DALF
14 confirmed
Diplomas of the French Ministry of National Education, administered worldwide by France Éducation international. DELF Prim is the primary-school version, DELF Junior/Scolaire the secondary one.
What it actually checks
Your child's French, examined in all four skills (listening, reading, speaking, writing) against the Common European Framework levels A1 to C2. The school does not grade it; an external jury does.
What it does not tell you
This is the one item on this page that belongs to your child rather than to the school. The diploma has no expiry date and is recognized internationally, which matters if you may move back to France or to another country.
The French Ministry of National Education. The Baccalauréat français international (BFI) replaced the option internationale du baccalauréat (OIB) from September 2022, first examined in 2024.
What it actually checks
The full French school-leaving diploma, sat at the end of Terminale (Grade 12). The BFI adds heavily weighted written and oral work in a second language on top of the standard French program.
What it does not tell you
It is only reachable where the school is homologated all the way through Grade 12. Most homologated schools in this directory stop at Grade 5 or Grade 8, which means the Bac is not on the table there. That is a continuity question worth asking in Kindergarten, not in Grade 8.
The International Baccalaureate Organization, Geneva. Schools are "authorized" for a program and re-evaluated on a recurring cycle.
What it actually checks
An inquiry-based curriculum framework. The Primary Years Programme (PYP) has no external assessment at all. The Middle Years Programme (MYP) has an optional one: externally marked on-screen exams and moderated coursework leading to an MYP certificate, which many schools do not take. Only the Diploma Programme (DP) in the final two years ends in a full externally examined diploma.
What it does not tell you
IB is language-agnostic. An IB World School is not a French school. The whole program can be delivered in English, and in most US IB schools it is. When you see IB next to a French label, they are telling you two unrelated things.
One exam at the end of the year, scored 1 to 5, aimed at roughly CEFR B1–B2. US colleges may grant credit or advanced placement for a strong score.
What it does not tell you
A single subject exam, taken in one school year. It is not a bilingual program, it certifies nothing about the school, and it is common in ordinary high schools with no immersion at all.
The state, and in some places the district, awarded on the high-school diploma or transcript at graduation.
What it actually checks
Demonstrated proficiency in English and in at least one other language, usually evidenced in 11th or 12th grade by an approved exam or a portfolio.
What it does not tell you
There is no national standard: the required proficiency level, the accepted evidence and the name itself vary from state to state, so two Seals from two states are not the same award. It is a recognition of what a program produced, not a review of the program.
About these counts. They are computed from this directory at build time and reflect what we were able to confirm, not the full truth about every school. Accreditation is well documented for private schools and patchy for public ones; many districts never publish it. A blank accreditation line means we could not confirm a label, never that the school lacks one. Corrections are welcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is an accredited school better than a non-accredited one?
For a private school, accreditation is close to a baseline: it confirms the school is financially and organizationally sound and does what it says it does. For a public school the question barely applies, since state approval is automatic. In neither case does accreditation tell you anything about the quality of the French teaching.
What is the difference between AEFE homologation and LabelFrancÉducation?
Homologation means the school teaches the French national curriculum to French standards, and it is granted level by level rather than to the whole school. LabelFrancÉducation means a school teaching its own national or state curriculum runs a recognized bilingual French section inside it. Homologation is the French system; the Label is a French quality mark on a non-French system.
My child's school is AEFE-affiliated. Can they take the French Bac there?
Only if the school is homologated through Grade 12. Most homologated schools in the US stop at Grade 5 or Grade 8, so pupils transfer elsewhere for the lycée years. Ask for the school's current homologated grade range in writing. The range on the ministry's decision letter is the authoritative one.
Does an IB World School teach in French?
Not necessarily, and usually not. The International Baccalaureate is language-agnostic and most US IB programs are delivered in English. IB status and French provision are two separate facts about a school.
What does it mean if a school lists no accreditation at all?
Usually that we could not confirm one. Public dual-language programs in particular often operate under nothing more than their district and state approval, and many run excellent French teaching without a single French-specific label.