Education provides opportunities for self-realization and development of talents, that is, ensures the achievement of the corresponding national development goal. Therefore, control over the quality of education should be brought to a new level, taking into account the concept of the ongoing reform of control and supervisory activities and information technology development. In this paper, the author, based on the historical-legal and formal-legal method, offers the author's approach to the periodization of the legal regulation of accreditation as a form of control over the quality of education. The author notes that the modern model of quality control of education is based on the assessment of the performance of accreditation indicators and is the result of the evolution of quality control of higher education in Russia. In general, the development of legal regulation of accreditation in the field of education includes, according to the author, 4 stages: "The formation of certification and accreditation as interrelated forms of control" (1987-2007); "Unification of certification and accreditation procedures" (2007-2010); "Improvement of state accreditation procedures. Introduction of accreditation expertise" (2010-2021); "Addition of state accreditation with accreditation monitoring tools" (2021–present). It is revealed that accreditation monitoring is becoming a new form of control activity, which is systematic. Additionally, within the framework of the conducted research, the author has developed some proposals for improving the legal regulation of accreditation monitoring.