Description: California's Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (Bureau) oversees private colleges operating in the state, but some institutions are exempt from the Bureau's oversight by virtue of their accreditation. This report compares the oversight provided by regional and national college accrediting agencies with the Bureau's oversight to assess the extent to which accreditors and the Bureau provide the same level of student protection. We make a number of recommendations in the report, including (1) continuing the exemption for most regionally accredited schools but conducting a limited review of business practices for a small number of these schools that are deemed higher risk, (2) reducing the scope of reviews for some nationally accredited schools that currently are subject to full state oversight, and (3) providing an opportunity for exempt schools to volunteer for a limited business practices review to help them meet new federal requirements.