September 17, 2026
2022 Residency & Fellowship Standards Changes (September 2026)
The CAATE Board of Commissioners approved changes to the CAATE Residency & Fellowship Program Standards. The changes provide clarification of Standards 26, 27, and Moonlighting expectations.
Standard 26: The number of work hours performed during the program must comply with all applicable organizational policies, state and federal laws and regulations.
Annotation: Work hours are predetermined by the program and include all educational and clinical training activities. Work hours are inclusive of all in-house clinical and educational activities, clinical and didactic work done from home, and moonlighting activities. Learners must not exceed 80 total hours per week, averaged over a four-week period. Total weekly hours include clinical, didactic, and moonlighting activities.
How to Address This Standard
- Define all categories of work hours, including clinical hours, didactic hours, administrative time, and moonlighting.
- Provide documentation of learner hour logs that clearly distinguish clinical, didactic, and moonlighting hours.
- Describe the processes used to monitor, verify, and address work hours compliance
- Ensure that organizational policies, state and federal laws and regulations related to work hours are followed and provide evidence of alignment.
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- Learner hours log with a clear breakdown of clinical, didactic, and moonlighting hours.
Moonlighting Definition: Voluntary and compensated athletic training work performed beyond/outside a learner’s clinical experience and education hours and beyond the work required for successful completion of the program. Moonlighting activities are counted towards the total weekly hours and must comply with all organizational, state, federal and program work hours policies.
Standard 27: The program must ensure that financial support provided to the learners is sufficient to allow learners to engage in the program without reliance on secondary employment.
Annotation: The program must provide compensation and benefits package that reflects the learners’ education, credentials, and licensure; accounts for regional cost of living; and aligns with the learner’s time commitment, roles and responsibilities as employees and learners. Compensation should be informed by organizational benchmarks and comparable positions.
How to Address This Standard
- Describe how compensation is determined, including the structure of financial support, what is included, and the rationale for the compensation model.
- Provide salary ranges for the data used to determine compensation, demonstrating that financial support is equitable and appropriate for the regional and/or local cost of living.
- Identify internal and external benchmarks used to establish the compensation and benefits package. Benchmarks may include peer programs and should be commensurate with full-tine athletic training staff.
- Explain how the compensation package supports the learners’ ability to participate fully in the program without secondary employment.
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- Provide the learners job description
- Provide letter of support from Human Resources that outlines how salary determination were made and what benchmarks were used.
Please contact the CAATE Office (accreditation@caate.net) with any questions regarding these changes.