IB Authorization Process: A DP Coordinator Checklist

The IB authorization process is the formal route through which a school demonstrates that it is ready to deliver the Diploma Programme as an IB World School. It moves through feasibility, candidacy, consultation, an application for authorization, a verification visit, the authorization decision, and preparation for the first cohort.

Authorization is not primarily a document-production exercise. The school must show that its leadership, staffing, curriculum, policies, resources, professional development, and routine practices can sustain a coherent DP. This checklist explains what a coordinator should establish at each stage.

The DP authorization process at a glance

The IB identifies connected phases rather than one fixed schedule. Its overview of the authorization process states that timeframes depend on each school's readiness.

Official candidate-school rules indicate that the period between acceptance as a candidate school and requesting authorization may be approximately 1-3 years or more. This is guidance, not a guaranteed timetable.

Stage 1: Complete a feasibility study

Before applying for candidacy, determine whether the school can sustain the DP educationally, financially, and operationally. The official DP candidacy requirements address legal status, mission alignment, financial commitment, community support, programme planning, and provision for the full Diploma Programme.

The coordinator should confirm that the school can:

• Meet local licensing, accreditation, and graduation requirements
• Offer appropriate choices across six subject groups and the DP core
• Support students pursuing the full IB Diploma, not only individual courses
• Build a timetable that allows concurrency of learning across two years
• Recruit and retain suitably qualified teachers and core leaders
• Fund IB fees, training, staffing, laboratories, library resources, technology, and examinations
• Provide counselling, inclusion, language, and university-guidance support
• Secure informed support from governors, leaders, teachers, students, and families

Appoint the proposed DP coordinator early. The position needs a formal job description, sufficient release time, administrative support, and authority to coordinate curriculum and implementation. Adding coordination to an already full teaching load creates an avoidable structural weakness.

Stage 2: Apply for candidacy

The school requests candidate status by completing its school profile, submitting the online Application for candidacy, providing the required documents, and paying the relevant fee. The IB resource library for aspiring schools contains reference applications, although formal submissions use the current online system.

Before submission, the head of school or an appropriate senior-management designee must meet the applicable Category 1 professional development requirement. The proposed coordinator must complete the current Leading the learning Category 1 workshop or be registered to complete it within six months of submitting the application.

Check that the submission includes:

• The feasibility study, action plan, and implementation budget
• Evidence of mission alignment and community support
• Governance, leadership, and coordinator-role information
• Proposed subjects, staffing, timetable, and resources
• Plans for required professional development
• Initial structures for TOK, CAS, and the extended essay

Candidate status is not authorization. The school must use the permitted candidate-school wording and must not imply that approval is guaranteed.

Stage 3: Build the programme during candidacy

Once candidacy is awarded, the school works with an IB programme relationship manager and an appointed consultant. The IB's candidacy guidance explains that this phase is used to complete training, develop curriculum and policies, refine procedures, and establish authorization-ready practices.

A crucial DP rule is often misunderstood: a DP candidate school may not offer or trial the Diploma Programme with students before authorization. Teachers may plan courses, develop units, and prepare systems, but the school cannot present students as a DP cohort until authorization has been granted.

Complete professional development

Before requesting authorization, confirm that relevant personnel have completed current IB-recognized training:

• The coordinator completes Leading the learning.
• Each proposed DP subject teacher completes the relevant Category 1 subject workshop, unless the IB confirms an accepted alternative.
• TOK teachers complete Category 1 Theory of knowledge training.
• The CAS coordinator completes Category 1 Creativity, activity, service training.

Maintain a register of workshop titles, dates, certificates, staff roles, and succession needs. Confirm the effect of staffing changes with the programme relationship manager rather than assuming one teacher's training covers a replacement.

Establish curriculum, policies, and the core

Course plans should align with current subject guides and assessment requirements. They should show progression across two years, links with TOK, approaches to teaching and learning, and a manageable schedule for internal assessment. Protect regular collaborative planning time and record substantive curriculum and assessment decisions.

Schools should consult the current application to confirm the exact policy evidence required. DP preparation normally includes coherent arrangements for academic integrity, assessment, language, and access and inclusion, alongside admissions, safeguarding, complaints, and data protection where locally applicable.

Approval alone does not make a policy operational. Staff, students, and families should understand how it affects decisions and classroom practice. For example, academic integrity procedures should connect source instruction, authentication, responsible technology use, consequences, and record keeping.

Appoint leaders for TOK, CAS, and the extended essay. Create calendars for supervision, CAS interviews, progress monitoring, TOK assessment, student support, and communication with families.

Stages 4 and 5: Consultation and authorization

Consultation is developmental rather than punitive. Give the consultant an accurate account of progress and unresolved constraints, then convert recommendations into actions with named owners and deadlines.

Useful evidence includes the action plan, budget, policies, curriculum documents, timetables, training records, collaborative-planning minutes, resource audits, and student-support arrangements. The evidence should reflect systems that staff genuinely understand, not a separate performance created for the consultant.

When the school believes it meets the requirements, it completes the online Application for authorization. Use the sample DP Application for authorization during candidacy as a gap-analysis tool.

Before submission, verify that:

• Every claim has current supporting evidence.
• Documents agree on responsibilities, dates, and procedures.
• Training is complete and accurately recorded.
• Staffing and subject choices remain financially sustainable.
• The timetable supports concurrency, the core, and collaboration.
• Leaders can explain how the programme will withstand staff turnover or budget pressure.

The IB may identify matters to be addressed. Each response should show that a specific required action has been completed, rather than provide a general assurance.

Stage 6: Prepare for the verification visit

The IB verification visit guidance explains that the visit checks whether the school can deliver, sustain, and improve the programme. A visit typically lasts two days, although arrangements may vary.

Prepare participants to explain their normal responsibilities rather than memorize scripts. Leaders should describe the school's purpose and resourcing; teachers should understand their courses and assessment responsibilities; core staff should explain monitoring and supervision; and counsellors should understand student well-being and post-secondary guidance.

Index evidence clearly without excessive duplication. Policies should be accessible and understood, while laboratories, libraries, technology, and other resources should match the proposed subjects. The school should also be able to discuss weaknesses honestly and explain how they are being addressed.

Stage 7: Launch the first cohort

Authorization must be confirmed before the school begins offering the DP. After approval, the coordinator should:

• Publish accurate admissions guidance and subject choices.
• Check each student's subject combination and level choices.
• Orient students and families to assessment, academic integrity, TOK, CAS, and the extended essay.
• Establish a two-year calendar for teaching, internal assessment, core milestones, examinations, and submissions.
• Register candidates through the IB's information system under current procedures.
• Coordinate deadlines across departments to control student workload.
• Monitor academic progress, attendance, and well-being from the first term.
• Maintain contingencies for staff departures and subject changes.

Once teaching begins, the RevisionDojo Questionbank can support targeted practice, while the guide to using IB mock exams diagnostically explains how teachers can identify misconceptions. These resources supplement official documentation and professional judgment.

Common authorization mistakes

Frequent problems include assuming candidacy permits DP teaching, offering an unsustainable number of subjects, failing to protect collaborative planning time, and treating TOK, CAS, and the extended essay as separate additions. Other weaknesses include unimplemented policies, incomplete training, excessive evidence without consistent practice, and advertising authorization before formal approval.

The programme should not depend entirely on one coordinator. The RevisionDojo guide for IB coordinators and school implementation overview can support shared planning after governance, privacy, and academic-integrity expectations have been reviewed.

Conclusion

A successful IB authorization process moves from feasibility through candidacy, capacity building, consultation, application, verification, and formal authorization before the first cohort begins. The coordinator's central responsibility is to create a sustainable programme in which leadership, trained staff, curriculum, policies, resources, and student support reinforce one another.

Current IB guidance and advice from the programme relationship manager should remain authoritative. After authorization, RevisionDojo can support implementation through Questionbank practice, Study Notes, Mock Exams, Jojo AI, and school-level teaching tools.

Sources and referenced URLs

• IB overview of the authorization process
• IB candidacy guidance
• IB request for authorization guidance
• IB verification visit guidance
• IB resource library for aspiring schools
• Official DP requirements for candidacy
• Sample DP Application for authorization
• Rules for IB candidate schools
• RevisionDojo guide for IB coordinators
• RevisionDojo for Schools
• RevisionDojo Questionbank
• RevisionDojo guide to using IB mock exams