Law Schools

Law School Gets Cut Off From Student Loan Funds... Again

More trouble for Florida Coastal Law.

By  
on

Florida Coastal School of Law — a law school that made it to the Final Four (of ATL’s Worst Law School in America bracket) — is showing its TTTrue colors. Last week, the law school learned that the U.S. Department of Education  terminated their access to federal student financial aid. This is the second time that’s happened (the first was back in 2019).

According to the law school, the snafu comes from a new DOE policy that requires a signature from a school investor. The law school’s president and dean, Peter Goplerud, told the ABA Journal that their DOE application for participation in the Title IV program is being resubmitted and that loan money for Florida Coastal students’ current term has been received.

“We are working diligently with the Department of Education to secure reinstatement of our participation in the Title IV program,” Goplerud wrote in an email to the Journal.

But that’s not the only issue they’ve run into.

The law school has also been directed to filed a teach-out plan with the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. ABA Rule 29 requires this step if the DOE initiates an emergency action against a law school. Those plans will be reviewed in late April:

The executive committee of the section’s council expects to review Florida Coastal’s teach-out plan in late April, wrote Bill Adams, managing director of ABA accreditation and legal education, in an April 5 statement.

Until the process is completed, Florida Coastal remains an ABA-accredited school.

“The action by DOE is a separate action that could ultimately have a bearing on the accreditation process. The council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, which is recognized by DOE as the national accreditor of law schools, will continue to work with the department and Florida Coastal School of Law to ensure a fair process and a fair outcome for all stakeholders,” Adams wrote in a separate emailed statement to the Journal.

The signatory requirement the law school has run afoul of may be complicated by the for-profit law school’s bid to turn into a nonprofit, according to Dr. Riaz Tejani, author of LawMart: Justice, Access, and For-Profit Law Schools. The law school’s initial bid to go nonprofit was rejected in November 2019, but Goplerud still says the move is in the school’s best interest.

Sponsored

“Because that conversion has so far stalled, my impression is that the school is in a Catch-22 of needing to show ownership solvency but lacking a readily coherent ‘owner’ to step forward without compromising their nonprofit conversion bid,” Tejani wrote in an email to the Journal.

headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

Sponsored

Topics

, , , , ,