Does the police dept accept online high school diploma?

Answer 1

Answer 1: Police departments are local, and so each one will have its own employment standards and requirements. However, most police departments, if they'll accept only a high school diploma (most, now, are requiring at least an associates degree), will accept one -- regardless whether it's online or in-classroom -- as long as the high school that awarded it is "regionally" accredited. So, then, this answer, so far, applies only to local police departments in the United States. I'll cover other countries in a moment.

In the US, all local, public K-12 schools are "regionally" accredited by one of the six big US "regional" accreditors approved by the US Department of Education (USDE). Most state both public and private colleges and universities are also "regionally" accredited by the higher-education/post-secondary divisions of those same six "regional" accreditors. At the post-secondary level, accreditors are approved not only by USDE, but also by the USDE-sanctioned Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

At the post-secondary level, in the US, USDE and CHEA also approve other kinds of accreditors: reglious accreditors, career/trade school accreditors, programmatic accreditors, and the generalized (because it'll accredit any kind of school) accreditors which specializes in the distance learning modality. Those accreditors are called "national" accreditors (as opposed to "regional" ones).

There is a long-standing debate about which is better: regional or national accreditation. I say it doesn't matter, but I also know that many do not agree. Sadly, there is a bias among schools, employers and even some in government toward regionally-accredited post-secondary colleges/universities toward regional, and not national, accreditation. National accreditation is not sub-standard, and CHEA even has a program, called "HETA," which encourages all schools, as long as they're accredited by a USDE- and/or CHEA-approved agency, to accept one another's transfer credits and degrees, regardless whether they're regionally or nationally accredited. But the cold, hard truth is that many -- most, in fact -- regionally-accredited schools will turn-up their noses at nationally-accredited transfer credits and/or degrees. So, too, will some employers, and government. So, then, even though national accredtation is just as good as regional accreditation, it's probably safest and best to always stick with schools that are regionally accredited.

At the high school (secondary) level, though, in the US, one should only attend regionally (and not nationally) accredited high schools. At the high school level, national accreditation simply won't do. National accreditation is just as good in terms of its requirements and standards, but virtually no one will accept a high school diploma that's nationally (rather than regionally) accredited.

So, then, even though it's debatable whether regional or national accreditation is better at the post-secondary (college) level...

...only regional accreditation will do at the secondary (high school) level!

And so, in the US, if you're applying to a local police department; and if said department will accept only a high school diploma (in other words, if it has not raised its standards to, at minimum, a college associates degree), then by all means make sure that said high school diploma is regionallyaccredited.

As long as the high school that awarded the diploma is regionally accredited, then it matters not whether it's an online high school, or an in-classroom one. And any hirer at a police department who thinks otherwise needs to be educated about it, because s/he would be provably wrong.

Outside the United States, accreditation works differently in every country. If the country has an objectively observable culture of educational accountability which is universally respected by academicians around the globe; and if said accountability is evidenced by that the country has some kind of governmentally-overseen educational quality assurance framework, similar to what the USDE and CHEA oversee in the US...

...then any online high school diploma that any of said country's accredited (even if that's not actually the word that it uses for it) online high school diplomas would likely be treated exactly like any of its in-classroom high school diplomas. And so, then, in that case, a local police department would likely accept it.

However, regardless what I've herein written, only the act of picking-up the phone and calling the police department in question, and then asking it, point blank, what are its educational standards for employment -- including the question of said education's either online or in-classroom mode of delivery -- will ultimately yield the absolutely correct answer.