Education Department Updates Cash Monitoring List

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The total number of colleges that U.S. Department of Education regulators are more closely monitoring because of concerns about their ability to handle federal funds ticked downward slightly last month, recently released data show.

The Education Department has updated its list of colleges facing extra scrutiny known as heightened cash monitoring. The new list shows that, as of June 1, 413 institutions were on the lower tier of cash monitoring, and 70 institutions were on the more restrictive level.

When the department first published the cash monitoring lists in March, 474 colleges faced the lesser restrictions and 69 colleges were on the higher level of scrutiny.

Education Department regulators may place a college on cash monitoring for any number of reasons ranging from serious concerns about administrative or financial capacity to missing a paperwork deadline. Colleges on the list face restrictions on how they access federal student aid money.

The new lists show that the Education Department has removed its aid restrictions on 16 Everest and WyoTech campuses, which were owned by Corinthian Colleges until February, when they were sold to ECMC’s Zenith Group. None of the other former Corinthian campuses that are now being run by Zenith are on the cash monitoring list.

Sixteen colleges found themselves newly on the lower level of cash monitoring as of June 1. The majority of them were placed on that status for failing the Education Department’s financial responsibility standards. Three public institutions -- Northern New Mexico College, Mesalands Community College in Tucumcari, N.M., and Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Mississippi -- were slapped with the cash monitoring restrictions for submitting audit documents to the Education Department either late or not at all.

Ten colleges have been added to the list of colleges that the Education Department is most closely scrutinizing:

Name	City, State	Type	Reason
Bristol University	Anaheim, Calif.	Proprietary	Program Review -- Severe Findings
Eureka Institute of Health and Beauty	Miami	Proprietary	Administrative Capacity
Access Careers	Brooklyn, N.Y.	Proprietary	Accreditation Problems
The Dance Theatre of Harlem	New York	Private, Nonprofit	Program Review
Institute of Design & Construction	Brooklyn, N.Y.	Private, Nonprofit	Accreditation Problems
Salon & Spa Institute	Brownsville, Texas	Proprietary	Problems Relating to a Change in Ownership
Faith Evangelical College & Seminary	Tacoma, Wash.	Private, Nonprofit	Program Review -- Severe Findings
Hamilton Technical College*	Davenport, Iowa	Proprietary	Financial Responsibility
Court Reporting Institute of Louisiana*	Baton Rouge, La.	Proprietary	Audit Late/Missing
Max-trix Beauty College*	Houston	Proprietary	Audit Late/Missing

(*Denotes institution was previously on heightened cash monitoring, level 1 as of March and has now been upgraded to level 2.)

Overall, 81 colleges that were on either level of heightened cash monitoring in March were removed from the lists as of June 1. That includes 12 Corinthian-owned campuses that suddenly closed in April shortly before the company filed for bankruptcy.

Seven for-profit colleges and one private nonprofit college that faced the more stringent aid restrictions in March won removal from that designation by June: the Real Barbers College in Anaheim, Calif.; Stone Academy in West Haven, Conn.; Manhattan Beauty School in Tampa, Fla.; American College of Hairstyling in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; International Beauty School in Cumberland, Md.; American Institute of Medical Sonography in Las Vegas; Institute of Therapeutic Massage in Lima, Ohio; and Ohio Mid-Western College in Cincinnati.

Asian-American International Beauty College, a for-profit college in Westminster, Calif., was removed from cash monitoring level 2 but remained on level 1.

Heightened Cash Monitoring Over Time: