SAN ANTONIO – The Department of Education revealed Monday what forced Career Point College to close its doors.
The for-profit vocational college failed to pay credit balances and required returns of unearned Title IV program funds totaling more than $4.6 million.
Now many students are left wondering what happens to their loans.
“Every student’s situation is going to be a bit different,” Marsha Eldridge said. She works in the financial aid office at Our Lady of the Lake University.
Eldridge said students should first contact the Department of Education and be careful of having their loans discharged.
“If they transfer one hour, they may not be eligible for the loan's forgiveness. The Department of Education is looking at it from the standpoint that you’re already making steps to further your education,” she said.
The Department of Education allows for students to be discharged in the event of a school closure, if certain criteria are met.
Students can transfer their loans to another college, but need to first make sure the school offers to accept it first. And how it could impact their own education.
According to the Texas Board of Nursing, the board will determine if an applicant for a nursing license meets all the eligibility requirements. The board determines that eligibility if it receives an online affidavit from the program dean/director. However, the board will work with students to allow review of an official transcript sent to them by a third party.
The Board of Nursing could not say if the Career Point students would have to start over at another school. It said each circumstance is different, but students can contact other approved nursing programs to inquire about transfer criteria.
The board also said it received no advance notice that Career Point College was closing its doors. Board rules state that schools must notify it of their closure four months prior to closure.
“You want to make sure you can keep as many credits as you have earned. And you don’t want to take out any more loan debt than you have to,” Eldridge said.
OLLU is offering free consultation to impacted students.
The office is open Monday–Friday and can be reached at 210-431-3960.
On its website, Career Point College said it is finalizing a “teach out” program for students. The Department of Education defines that as a written course of action to ensure students are treated fairly with regards to finishing their study program.
The letter sent by Career Point to students and teachers stated:
Two months ago, the Career Point College management team discovered that three long-term employees had collaborated to violate the rules related to student aid funds. After conducting a full investigation, the president of the College self-reported the inappropriate activity to the Department of Education, and provided the Department of Education with a plan to repay all funds taken.Even though no money was stolen, and even though the College had self-report the violation and agreed to repay all inappropriately received funds, the plan was not accepted. Instead, the Department of Education severely restricted government funds going to the College making it impossible for the College to continue operations. Finally, after exhausting all available resources, the College's management has been forced to discontinue operations.Therefore, effective immediately, Career Point College is closed.Since 1984, the College has had an impeccable record of complying with all federal and state regulations. In fact, the College has never had even one student lawsuit in its entire history.
The College has one of the highest completion rates in state and last year the College's students had one of the highest vocational nursing pass rates on the nursing licensing examination (94 percent). The College is very proud of its support of the community and is proud that over its long history, the College has graduated and changed the lives of over 10,000 students.However, in this very hostile government climate against for-profit schools, the Department of Education chose not to give the College a chance to fix its problems and instead chose to effectively terminate the College.To all our very fine students, staff, and faculty, we are so sorry that we have to close this fine, old institution. The college's management is attempting to arrange various teach-out opportunities for our student, and we will provide that Information as it is available.Over the next few weeks, we will be attempting to provide students transfer assistance to other college as that also becomes available.Again, we apologize for closing the school, but in light of the actions by the Department of Education, we had no choice.