Law Schools

Betsy DeVos Saves Law Students From Having To Repay Their Loans

At least this story has a bit of a happy-ish ending -- for some people.

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Betsy DeVos (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Hundreds of students may be able to get out of repaying their law school loans thanks to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

That sentence seems incredible, especially given the fact that DeVos recently moved to block states from interfering with student loan debt collectors, but it’s true. Late last week, DeVos announced that more students who attended the defunct Charlotte School of Law would be eligible for closed school discharges of their loans. If you recall, students were placed between a rock and a hard place thanks to the school’s numerous delays and self-serving games before it was forced to close. According to a press release from the Department of Education, DeVos has chosen to taken pity upon those students.

“My focus is and will continue to be on doing what’s right for individual students,” said DeVos. “Several students, through no fault of their own, fell through the cracks as Charlotte School of Law closed. It’s important that they, too, are made whole.”

Typically, students who were enrolled when a school closes or withdrew not more than 120 days before the school closed can have their federal student loans from that school forgiven if they meet certain requirements. That 120-day window can be extended if the Secretary deems there are exceptional circumstances.

Given the atypical circumstances of this closure, the Secretary has extended the window.

The extension will be granted to students who withdrew on or after December 31, 2016 — 224 days prior to the school’s closure. DeVos’s extension will secure discharge eligibility for about a dozen more students, bringing the grand total to 300 student borrowers who could be eligible to have their federal loans forgiven.

It’s important for former students of Charlotte Law to remember that they will only be eligible for a closed school discharge of their loans if they withdrew on or after December 31, 2016, or were still attending school when it closed. Students who are completing their law degrees at another school will not be eligible for a discharge unless they choose not to use their credits from Charlotte Law towards their degrees, or if their new school won’t accept their credits from Charlotte Law.

The Charlotte School of Law really screwed with students during its demise, but at least this story has a bit of a happy-ish ending — for some people.

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Secretary DeVos Extends Closed School Discharge to More Charlotte School of Law Student [U.S. Department of Education]
Hundreds of Charlotte School of Law students may not have to repay loans after all [Charlotte Observer]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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