January 18, 2024
Holly Eichhorst
Manager of Commission Actions and Governance
Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges
RE: Remington College
Dear Holly Eichhorst,
Remington College’s Dallas, Texas; Shreveport, Louisiana; and Nashville, Tennessee, campuses are on the list of schools that may have their renewal applications for accreditation considered by the Commission at the February 2024 meeting. We write to bring your attention to complaints we have received from student veterans who attended the Dallas campus and other Remington locations. It appears that ACCSC is the only accreditor for Remington College and the complaints indicate concerns with recruitment practices across campuses. We urge the Commission to require Remington to demonstrate its compliance with ACCSC’s standards before considering the pending application for renewal.
Student veterans who contacted us described being misled by Remington College about career opportunities. Two student veterans were unable to get jobs with any local law enforcement agencies after studying criminal justice at Remington College. A student at the Dallas campus said he was “deceived” by the school because “their accreditation is not accepted by most if not all law enforcement agencies in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.” A student veteran at the Houston campus described the same experience with Houston-area law enforcement. The student veteran who attended the Houston campus also said the school misrepresented his attendance to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Another student veteran, who attended the Memphis, Tennessee, campus, said he enrolled in Remington after recruiters from the school “claimed that 90% of its students found work in their field of study within 6-10 months after graduating.” However, he told us that when he graduated, he was unable to find work anywhere and his credits would not transfer to other schools. Additionally, this student reported, “Remington had me sign documents for student loans that I didn’t understand and financial aid representatives didn’t explain.”
We urge you to review Remington College’s compliance with ACCSC’s Standards, including Section IV–Student Recruitment, Advertising, and Disclosures. Specifically, the school’s compliance with the below standards warrants review by the Commission:
- Section IV, A2: A school’s recruitment efforts describe the school to prospective students fully and accurately and follow practices that permit prospective students to make informed and considered enrollment decisions without undue pressure.
- Section IV, A4: A school has and enforces an acceptable code of conduct for all school personnel whose primary responsibilities are to engage in recruiting and admissions functions prior to and during admission and matriculation.
- Section IV, A8: A school has in place policies and procedures and takes reasonable steps to ensure that its personnel do not make false, exaggerated, or misleading statements about the school….
- Section VI, A2: The school maintains adequate student services and resources that support its students in maintaining satisfactory progress, achieving successful educational and student achievement outcomes (i.e., knowledge and skill attainment, retention, graduation, and employment), and making informed decisions concerning training and employment.
- Section VII, B1(b): The school demonstrates successful student achievement by maintaining acceptable rates of student graduation and employment in the career field for which the school provided education as well as acceptable pass rates on licensure/certification exams where required by governmental entities to work in a particular career field. The school supports student achievement rates through student transcripts, the school’s verifiable records and documentation of initial employment of its graduates, and exam pass rate data obtained from the requiring entity.
We urge the Commission to exercise its authority under ACCSC Standards, Section IV, A9 to require Remington College “to audit its recruiting activities for compliance with accreditation standards or applicable law and regulation using a qualified independent third-party that is approved by the Commission” prior to considering the renewal applications.
Respectfully,
Della M. Justice
Vice President for Legal Affairs
Nathan Winshall
Law Fellow