Dive Brief:

• While it’s impossible to say how many students have been denied, at least two petitioners for student loan relief based on alleged fraud by their institutions have not received discharges they should be entitled to from the Department of Education.
• The Huffington Post reports on two graduates of for-profit Career Education Corp., schools which turned in 100 plus page petitions in recent years, both of which were denied. They now may get a second look from the Department, which has apologized for distributing incorrect information about discharge rights.
• The Department has not released information about the number of debt relief applications, even when prompted with official requests, according to the article.

Dive Insight:

Appeals for debt relief from federal student loans is becoming somewhat of a movement among students of for-profit career education schools, especially. More than 150 students from Corinthian Colleges Inc., subsidiaries have gone on a "debt strike," refusing to pay back student loans, claiming in many instances that they shouldn’t have to because the schools committed fraud. Federal law provides for student loan forgiveness if a college or university breaks state law through "any act or omission." In these cases, students claim the colleges tricked them into taking out loans to finance their education by overstating job placement rates and/or misrepresenting accreditation status.