For Your Professional Ethics Edification

The ACPE Professional Ethics Commission (PEC) purpose includes education for our members about ethics issues and processes. Each month we post a commissioner’s reflection* on ethics concerns, including our ethics process.

"Why we sign the Accountability for Ethical Conduct Policy Report Form every year”

For January, Julie Hanada, ACPE Certified Educator, Seattle, WA writes:

Since it is January, and we are paying our association dues, we are also filling out the Accountability for Ethical Conduct Policy Report Form. I admit, I often do not bother to read it. No complaints? Just sign it and move on. However, since joining ACPE Professional Ethics Commission, I have been asked about it a few times, so thought I should take a closer look. I was curious about why we do this yearly, who reviews them, and what happens if we need to self-report an issue. Here is what I found out.

The Why:

            a. We sign these forms yearly when we pay our dues. This schedule now aligns with APC’s practice (ACPE and APC share joint ethics case processes.) A yearly review, rather than only doing it during Peer Reviews, helps the association identify issues quickly;

b. Members do not need to self-report about grumblings, threats of complaints, or complaining in non-formal processes;

c. Members are required to self-identify if disciplinary or corrective actions from complaints of unethical or felonious conduct have been imposed, and self-report if pending complaints exist in employment, ecclesiastical, other professional organizations, civil and criminal;

d. Members also attest that they have never resigned, transferred, been terminated, nor negotiated a settlement related to unethical or felonious conduct;

e. When we sign, we also state that we understand that a condition of our membership is notifying ACPE in a timely manner if any complaints are filed against us and be responsive to any requests for information regarding our self-report. 

What Happens with Self-Reports:

            When a member cannot certify that no incidents have occurred as described in items b. or c. above, the member’s account of the incident is reviewed by the Accountability Review Committee (ARC). The ARC is composed of the Executive Director, the Chair of the Professional Ethics Commission (PEC), the Chair of the Certification Commission, the PEC ethics consultant, and a designated Board Member. As part of the terms of our membership, we authorize ACPE to review and investigate these matters.

Results Following Self-Reports:

            The investigation is done by the ARC. The committee’s decisions are final and binding.  Prior actions are not an automatic bar to ACPE membership and each situation will be evaluated on its own merits. ACPE, upon referral from the ARC investigation, has the right to extend or deny membership based on the outcome of the investigation.

As part of my review of this process, I learned that it is very rare that membership is denied due to issues identified in our annual accountability form. Nonetheless, it is an important part of our annual registration process, and remedial actions can be imposed when it is learned that a member did not self-report.

The purpose of the Professional Ethics Commission includes providing education for our members about ethics issues and processes. By sharing some information about this annual exercise, I hope it helps you to understand the reasons we do it, and what happens if it becomes necessary to self-report. We hope having transparent ethics processes helps demystify our commission’s work. Please feel free to reach out to me (I begin my two-year term as Chair of the PEC this month.) with questions you have about our ethics processes or ethics-related issues. Your questions might lead to a future article.

*Every situation is unique, and any member should not act based solely on the comments in the article but to base action on an independent review of the ethical standards applicable to his/her situation.