WHILE ATTENDING COLLEGE

SCHOOL CLOSURES

If you are enrolled and your school closes, and you can't complete your program because of the closure, any U.S. Department of Education loan obtained to pay your cost of attendance at that school can be discharged.

If your school closes while you're enrolled, and you can't complete your program because of the closure, any U.S. Department of Education loan obtained to pay your cost of attendance at that school can be discharged. If you were on an approved leave of absence, you are considered to have been enrolled at the school. If your school closed within 90 days after you withdrew, you are also considered eligible for the discharge. However, your loan cannot be cancelled because of personal circumstances that caused you to withdraw more than 90 days before the school closed.

Please bear in mind that you are not eligible for the discharge if you are completing a comparable educational program at another school. If you complete such a program at another school after your loan is discharged, you might have to pay back the amount of the discharge. If you haven't received a diploma or certificate but have completed all the coursework for the program, you're not eligible for the discharge.

If you need to find out the day your school officially closed, you can visit the U.S. Dept. of Education's Closed School Search Page. For answers to questions about your closed school, call the appropriate person on the list of Closed School Unit Contacts.

If the holder of your loan learns your school closed, your loan holder will send you a loan discharge application. If you don't receive an application, contact the loan holder (see contact information above).

Getting your financial aid and academic records if your school closes.

Contact the state licensing agency in the state in which the school was located to ask whether the state made arrangements to store the records. The records might be useful in substantiating your claim for a loan discharge. For your convenience, we're providing a listing of telephone numbers for State Licensing Agencies.

You might need your academic records if you plan to attend another school and want to have your coursework at the closed school taken into consideration. If you’re applying for aid at the new school, it can check the Financial Aid History information included either on the Student Aid Report you received or in the electronic record the school receives. If you're transferring in the middle of the year, your new school must check your information in the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS).

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