by Breeanna Jent on 2015-07-27

Five days after the announcement of Four-D College's sudden closure, students from the institution's two campuses, one in Colton and one in Victorville, were advised about their options. Staff from the California Department of Consumer Affairs' Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education were at two separate locations Friday, July 17, to provide former Four-D students with applications for tuition recovery, Federal student loan discharge information and advice on how to obtain financial aid documents, transcripts and other school records. The meeting came less than a week after Four-D College announced its sudden closure, which many students and staff were alerted to by a message taped to the college's front doors as they arrived Monday morning, July 13 at campus. The notice attributed the sudden closure to the denial of job-related placement of Four-D graduates by the school’s accrediting agency, the Virginia-based Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES). “For unknown specific reasons, the agency began to deny the job-related placements of its graduates without provocation. Due to the actions of ABHES rejecting the placements of graduates into viable employment, ABHES issued an act to deny the renewal of Four-D College’s accreditation,” the notice read. This “gravely affected” the institution’s Title-IV funding, the notice stated. On July 13, the ABHES posted a statement on its official website that read it disagreed "with the statements describing the bases for ABHES actions" made by Smith. The statement went on, "Furthermore, Four-D has exercised its right to appeal the decision and therefore remains accredited by ABHES at the present time pending the resolution of the appeal.” On July 15, ABHES posted an updated statement that in accordance with its accreditation manual, Four-D College had relinquished its ABHES accreditation by ceasing operation on July 13. In a public posting on her Facebook page on July 13, Smith said, “What occurred to Four D College was unprecedented and out of our control. I sincerely apologize to all that all of my endeavors to keep the school open were unsuccessful.” She called the circumstances “unfair” and “unprecedented.” Neither Smith nor representatives from ABHES returned phone calls seeking comment by time of press. Four-D College’s Colton campus was accredited in 1996 and its Victorville campus in 2006. It was a private Christian college providing courses on licensed vocational nursing and other health care programs. Students are being provided with official copies of their financial and academic transcripts and attendance records via mail within five business days. Students may review the status of their financial aid online at nslds.ed.gov and may also contact the California State Authorizing Agency, Bureau of Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education (BPPVE) at www.dca.ca.gov/bbpve for more information. [END] From PE: FOUR D COLLEGE: Technical school closes down suddenly A note on the Colton campus’s front door said its accreditation was pulled. It’s the latest in a string of for-profit colleges going out of business. BY MARK MUCKENFUSS / STAFF WRITER Published: July 13, 2015 Updated: July 14, 2015 3:26 p.m. Students and workers at Four-D College found out Monday, July 13 that they were the latest to be affected by the closure of an Inland area technical college. In the past year, six such colleges in the region have gone out of business, leaving students with incomplete educations and faculty and staff without jobs. School officials were not on hand Monday at either of Four-D College’s two campuses, in Colton and Victorville. Phone and email messages left with owner Linda Smith were not returned. A notice announcing the closure was taped inside the Colton school’s glass front doors. A short chain passed through the handles was padlocked. In the parking lot outside the building, students and staff huddled in small groups. Most were seeking information on what to do next. Many were angry. Carlos Gutierrez, 44, of Victorville, who finished a yearlong LVN program last week and was preparing for his exit exam in a week, called it “surreal.” He said the owners of the company should be prosecuted. “They saw this coming,” he said. “If they knew there was going to be an accident, they should tell us to put on our seat belts. That’s what pilots do when the plane is going down, right?” Teresa Lara, 46, of Ontario said she worked as an admissions representative at the school. She said there were approximately 600 students and 200 employees at the two campuses. The closure notice on the front door of the school also appeared on Four-D’s website. It said the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools had begun refusing to accept Four-D’s job-placement figures for graduating students in 2011 and had pulled the school’s accreditation. “Due to ABHES’ actions, the Institution’s Title-IV funding has been gravely effected (sic) and has made it impossible for the Institution to continue to operate,” the notice said. Students and staff outside the school said they were unaware of such problems. Michelle Allen, 47, of Loma Linda said she was both working and going to school at Four-D, studying medical billing and coding. “There’s no problem being placed in medical billing and coding,” Allen said. “The class before my class, all except one was placed before their graduation date.” Joneane Davis, who directed the school’s dental program, said 85 percent of her former students were working in the field. Students did complain that some of the equipment used in their programs was shoddy, such as hospital beds that didn’t function properly, anatomical dummies that were worn out and stethoscopes that fell apart. But most seemed to feel they were getting the education they needed. Davis spent the morning encouraging the students to continue that education at other colleges. “I know it’s upsetting,” she told the students. “It’s upsetting for me. I’m out of a job. You’ve got to absorb it like a speed bump in the road. I just don’t want you to stop.” At one point, the students joined hands in a circle and Davis’ husband, the Rev. Victor Davis, led the group in a prayer. “I love all of you guys,” Joneane Davis said after the prayer. “I’m pulling for all of you guys, and you’re going to be fine.” It was hard for some to feel that way. Chonita Foster, 23, of Colton said she had attended Everest College prior to coming to Four-D. She earned a medical assistant certificate at Everest in 2013, she said, but hadn’t been able to find work. Some employers told her they didn’t recognize certificates from Everest. Everest College had three Inland campuses. Those schools closed in April, when parent company Corinthian Colleges went out of business. In January 2014, Career Colleges of America, which had a San Bernardino campus, closed without warning. Foster, who was in the LVN program at Four-D, said she chose to enroll in a technical college because she couldn’t get the classes she needed at her local community college. But she was leery about continuing on that track. “What if I do go to another school and they shut down?” Foster said. Russ Heimerich, spokesman for the California Department of Consumer Affairs, said representatives from the Bureau of Private Postsecondary Education were planning to be in the area Friday, although details on the time and place had not been ironed out. Those representatives, he said, will have information to help students obtain necessary transcript information and apply for student loan forgiveness. Heimerich said he didn’t think the number of recent Inland school closures represented a trend, although they were all what he called higher-profile schools. “We’ve seen closures, but generally they’re small schools,” he said. “What’s different is maybe the increasing scrutiny that’s being put on the schools by the federal government.” Heimerich said he wanted to ease the students’ anxiety. “We will be able to help them,” he said. “The relief is coming, but it’s not going to be an overnight process.” Time is what many students feel they have lost. Some, or many, may have to start over. Sharon Cook, 39, of Moreno Valley said she planned to continue her LVN studies. She was halfway through the yearlong program at Four-D. “I lost my mom eight months ago,” Cook said. “I promised her I would get my license and this is what I get, another loss. It just leaves us nowhere.” Students who were enrolled at Four D College may qualify to have some or all of their loans forgiven. Details on a meeting in the Colton area by the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education should be available by the end of the day Tuesday, July 14. Visit bppe.ca.gov and click on Alerts Information on loan forgiveness can also be found on this U.S. Department of Education site: studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/closed-school ***** From SB Sun: Four-D College closes; 600 students, faculty, staff displaced By Jim Steinberg, The Sun POSTED: 07/12/15, 6:03 PM PDT | After 23 years of graduating more than 18,000 students, Four-D College — which has a campus in Colton and another in Victorville — announced Sunday evening that it is closing its doors effective immediately. Nearly 600 students, faculty and staff members will be displaced by the decision, said Linda Smith, a San Bernardino native who founded the school and is its president. “The (U.S.) Department of Education took a wrecking ball to our cash flow,” Smith said. Four-D College, which educates students for careers in the health care field, is closing, Smith said, because the Education Department changed the way it reimburses the school from making payments within 48 hours after bills are submitted to 30 to 40 days afterward. Department of Education officials did not immediately respond to a question posed Friday about why that change was made. Smith said it was because the school’s accreditation agency, the private Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools in Falls Church, Virginia, denied the institution’s application for accreditation renewal in June. In response to a reporter’s question, Education Department spokesman Al Betancourt wrote “the school is still accredited until the appeal process has been exhausted.” Smith said the appeals process could take nine months. “We are currently working a complaint submitted by Four-D College against the accrediting agency,” Betancourt said. Four-D ran afoul of its accrediting body over what the agency says, in letters to Smith, is the institution’s failure to document placement of graduates in appropriate career fields related to their studies. This dispute goes back to 2012, documents say. Smith accused newly hired officials of the accrediting agency as having a vendetta against her, and said the school had not changed its reporting practices since its initial 1996 accreditation for the Colton campus and 2006 for the Victorville campus. Smith said that Four-D is being held to different rules than similar for-profit health field schools in Ontario and Dallas. Michael D. White, director of legal and regulatory affairs for the ABHES, said “any information not on the website is confidential and cannot be discussed or disclosed. Neither I nor any other person associated with ABHES can do anything more than refer you to the website.” “I am devastated as are our top executives and directors. We have 600 individuals who are being displaced,” said Smith, a 1970 graduate of San Gorgonio High School in San Bernardino who says she has a B.S. in nursing from Cal State Long Beach and teaching credentials from Cal Poly Pomona. Advertisement She also has an MBA from La Salle University. In June 2014, Smith was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to the board of the California State Assistance Fund for Enterprise, Business and Industrial Development Corp. Over the weekend, key Four-D staff members worked to prepare certified copies of student transcripts that will be mailed to everyone early this week, Smith said. Students can use transcripts to enroll in other institutions, she said. In her career as president and founder of Four-D College, Smith has won awards as the Business of the Year for Health Care Industry in 2013, an Unforgettable Hearts Award in 2014, Unsung Hero in 2010, Pioneer Award in Business by the NAACP in 2004, Women of Distinction Award in 1998, Outstanding Business in San Bernardino County in 1998. In April, another for-profit school, Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges, shut more than 100 campuses across the United States and Canada for an entirely different reason. The U.S. Department of Education fined the group $30 million for misrepresentation. The Corinthian umbrella included Everest College and WyoTech schools in California, Arizona and New York. ****** Taped on wall at 4D: July 12, 2015 Effective immediately, Four-D College is closed and will not reopen. Four-D College has been accredited by the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES) since 1996. The job placements of its graduates have been accepted without question up until 2011. For unknown specific reasons, the agency began to deny the job-related placements of its graduates without provocation. Due to the actions of ABHES rejecting the placements of graduates into viable employment, ABHES issued an act to deny the renewal of Four-D College’s accreditation. The institution has diligently, with legal counsel, tried to have ABHEs accept its placement records in recent years. It should be noted that the placement of graduates in job-related fields from other institutions accredited by ABHES have been accepted at the same level or below submissions of Four-D College. Due to ABHES’ actions, the Institution’s Title-IV funding has been gravely effected and has made it impossible for the Institution to continue to operate. Due to the forced closure by ABHES, the Institution will be providing students with official copies of their financial and academic transcripts and attendance records via mail within 5 business days. Students can review the status of their financial aid online at NSLDS.ed.gov. For additional assistance you may also contact the California State Authorizing Agency, Bureau of Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education (BPPVE) at www.dca.ca.gov/bbpve. We have been pleased to operate as a private Christian College in the Inland Empire for 23 years. We are truly saddened by the action to be singled out by our accrediting agency and forced to close. ****** From Linda Smith, posted on her Facebook Page July 13: I have had the pleasure of operating a private Christian College for 23yrs. In our environment we were able to pray with students, faculty and staff. Many students accepted the Lord as their Savior while on campus. Students and faculty prayed at the beginning of each class and prayers were read over the intercom daily. What occurred to Four D College was unprecedented and of our control. I sincerely apologize to all that allof my endeavors to keep the school open were unsuccessful. Below is information provided to you, the reader and agencies. To agencies: This is the official notice that Four-D College is closed. The plague of unfair circumstances brought upon the institution by ABHES and legal counsel are unprecedented. It is a known fact that all schools job related placement for pharmacy technician is pharmacy clerk postions and VN graduates are placed in related fields until they obtain their license. Four-D College graduates in these fields were placed the same as other ABHES'S schools. The only difference, particular between American Career College and the Dallas School of Nursing, is each of these schools have staff members as ABHES Commissioners. This fact was repeatedly ignored during the multiple presentations with legal counsel and the Commissions. From 1996 to 2011 Four-D College never was required to place graduates in title specific job only and all of our job related position were rejected by Mike White and the Commission. As the President of a private Christian College, I know that the Lord will oversee all of the ugliness that was directed at us. We all are grateful to God that for 23 years we had an environment where we could pray with our students, faculty and staff. Please open the link below. http://4dcollege.edu/ Thank you and God's speed. Linda Smith Public message ****** MESSAGES: From 4D: http://4dcollege.edu/ 4D College Student info: http://www.bppe.ca.gov/students/fourd_college.shtml ABHES Rebuttal to 4D Claims: http://www.abhes.org/assets/uploads/files/July_15_Four_D_notice.pdf ABHES Notice of 4D Accreditation Relinquishment: http://www.abhes.org/assets/uploads/files/FOUR_D_relinquishment_notice_7_15_15.pdf California Bureau of Postsecondary Education, contact: http://www.bppe.ca.gov/about_us/contact.shtml