ED Communications re ACICS Between March 23 – April 3, 2018

On December 12, 2016, the U.S. Department of Education terminated recognition of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (“ACICS”) after finding that the accreditor was pervasively noncompliant with numerous criteria required of such entities. On March 23, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an Order remanding the December 2016 decision back to the Secretary for consideration of additional evidence. See March 23, 2018 Order in Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools v. DeVos, No. 16-cv-2448 (D.D.C.). On April 3, 2018, Secretary DeVos issued an Order restoring ACICS’s status as a recognized accreditor and removing ACICS from the agenda at the May 2018 meeting of the National Advisory Council on Institutional Quality and Integrity (“NACIQI”). That same day, the Department issued a press release announcing the Secretary’s decision regarding ACICS’s status.

On April 4, 2018, NSLDN submitted a FOIA request to the Department seeking all communications, regardless of subject matter, between ED and representatives of ACICS and/or the Career Education Colleges and Universities (“CECU”). This request is limited to the time- period between the March 23 court ruling and the Secretary’s April 3 order reinstating ACICS.

A copy of the FOIA request is available here.

On August 24, 2018, the Department provided documents as part of an interim response to this request.