[5] Established in 1996, CHEA is the successor to several earlier national nongovernmental associations formed to coordinate the U.S. accreditation process for higher education.

In 1993, COPA was dissolved because of tensions among the different types of accreditation agencies that formed its membership—ultimately the result of the increasing problems for higher education in the 1980s and 1990s.

[8][9] Consequently, the 1992 amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965 included Program Integrity provisions designed to strengthen the gatekeeping triad for student loan guarantees and financial aid (i.e., state licensing bodies, accreditation associations, and Federal government).

The higher education community viewed with alarm the establishment of State Postsecondary Review Entities (SPREs), which were given accrediting powers under special conditions.

"When campus lobbyists heard about the legislation and realized that non-governmental accreditation was being replaced by a federal-state agency evaluation of institutions, including assessments of academic quality never before carried out by the government, they 'went apoplectic', as one observer put it.

However, organizations that are recognized by CHEA and not also by the Department of Education may operate only with oversight from the Oregon Student Assistance Commission.