At the height of the crisis, more than one million registered children were unable to attend school, due to closed schools, damaged buildings and absent teachers.
Because now there is a growing danger that the schools themselves will start steering students away from their right to a closed school refund.
And the likely reason that Alta Colleges wants Westwood students not to elect a closed school discharge is because the Department of Education might be motivated, given a large enough volume of student debt forgiveness claims, to come after Alta for fines to compensate for some of the lost loan money, which otherwise the Department, and taxpayers, will have to eat.
Among the goals of school closure may be to reduce the number of students infected at the closed school, to reduce transmission from school children to others outside the school, and more generally to slow the spread of infection until other interventions (such as vaccination) are available or until changes in external conditions, such as temperature and humidity, reduce transmission.
For example, a potential site (a closed school site) seemed to meet all criteria but was later found to harbor asbestos.
So Heald students who are in schools that closed would be eligible for closed school loan discharge.
In fact, as the Department of Education explains on its website, if students get a closed school discharge, they can still transfer credits to a new school, provided they pursue a different program.
Tuition grants — School districts were required to offer tuition grants to all students in closed schools.
For example, the department could determine how many former Corinthian students eligible for a so-called "closed school discharge" have remained eligible by not transferring their credits to other schools, and forgive those debts based on that information.
We also urge Secretary Duncan to exercise his authority to expand the time period during which students who withdraw before a Corinthian school closure are eligible for closed school discharges.
