ED’s De-recognition of ACICS: What It Means for ACICS and What It Means for You

Sec Outsourcing’s lawyers have analyzed the effect of the Department of Education’s decision on December 12, 2016 to withdraw recognition status from ACICS.  The following is our attempt to explain in plain English what all this legal wrangling means to you as a school owner or operator.

ACICS has now exhausted its administrative remedies and its only remaining recourse is to challenge the Agency’s decision in federal court. (Note: ACICS is attempting to regain the ability to provide access to Title IV funding through CHEA – The Council for Higher Education Accreditation. However, no decision will be reached by CHEA before mid-2018.  So this process does not provide an immediate remedy to ACICS or to you as an ACICS-accredited school.)

So back to the potential litigation.  In theory, litigation could provide both a temporary and a permanent remedy. “Temporary” means a Stay of the DOE’s Order. “Permanent” means an overrule of the DOE’s decision.  We are skeptical. Litigation is inherently uncertain for several reasons. One, the identity (and prior decision history) of the federal judge who would be assigned the case is unknown. Two, whichever judge hears the case is bound by legal precedent from similar cases that were decided in the past, and most of the precedent favors the DOE. Three, the court must give deference to the DOE’s decision which means that the burden is on ACICS to prove that DOE abused its authority and failed to properly apply its laws and regulations. That is a tough legal row to hoe because throughout the administrative process, the DOE seems to have well-documented the factual basis for its actions and afforded ACICS its due process rights.

If there is a bright spot for ACICS, here it is: ACICS was terminated by the Obama Administration’s Department of Education but would be litigating against the Trump Administration’s DOE. That could be helpful in theory. However, the court process is lengthy. And the mere filing of a lawsuit does not result in an automatic stay of the Obama Administration’s decision. In all likelihood, in order to get the court to stay or halt the DOE’s Order, ACICS would have to convince the judge that it is likely to win the lawsuit when it is all said and done. Without a Stay, the clock is ticking. Schools have 18 months to complete the re-accreditation process.

Now, if all of this legal talk has caused you to shake your head in dismay, you may want to let Sec Outsourcing take care of it for you. Our lawyers, paralegals, and compliance analysts lead the compliance function for many schools and have the resources to advise and support you. Call us at (786) 801-1573 or contact our VP of Client Service, Shannon Langmeier at SLL@suadvisor.com.

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