Regulatory counsel for the institutions that educate. We handle accreditation, Title IV and student-aid compliance, state authorization, and the governance that keeps an education enterprise eligible, funded, and defensible.
An institution that takes federal student aid signs a Program Participation Agreement with the Department of Education, and every other obligation hangs from it. A cohort default rate of 30 percent or more for three consecutive years ends eligibility outright. For a proprietary school, two consecutive years above the 90 percent federal-revenue line does the same. We read those terms the way a lender reads a credit agreement.
The Department, the accreditor and the state regulate the same campus on different calendars. The accreditor wants a substantive-change application before a new program or location opens. The state wants authorization wherever a student sits, which for an online program means every state or the reciprocity agreement covering most of them. The Department wants at least 90 days' notice of a change in ownership and the other two approvals in hand before it gives its own. We sequence the filings so none is sought before its predicate exists.
We counsel boards and owners on governance and compliance, and we represent institutions in matters before the U.S. Department of Education, accrediting agencies and state regulators, with additional or locally admitted counsel engaged where a forum requires it.
Counsel on accreditor standards, initial and continued accreditation, substantive-change review, and the state-authorization requirements an institution must satisfy in every jurisdiction where it enrolls or operates.
Federal student-aid compliance under the Higher Education Act, covering eligibility, administrative capability, financial responsibility, and the program-integrity rules that keep an institution certified to participate.
Representation in program reviews, compliance audits, recertification, and enforcement, including matters before the U.S. Department of Education and state regulators, with additional counsel engaged where a forum requires it.
Board structure, fiduciary duties, conflict policies, and the institutional policies on enrollment, refunds, complaints, and academic governance that regulators and accreditors expect to see documented and followed.
Review of recruitment, advertising, and disclosure practices against incentive-compensation, misrepresentation, and consumer-protection rules, and against the marketing standards regulators apply to education claims.
Regulatory diligence and structuring for acquisitions, change-of-ownership filings, conversions, and online-program partnerships, so the deal and the accreditor and Department approvals move on one timeline.
Federal aid, accreditation and state authorization are three separate licenses to operate, and losing one eventually costs the other two. The Department will not certify an unaccredited school, the accreditor requires state authorization, and a state often conditions its approval on accreditation. Each decision is tested against all three before it is made.
The Department scores an institution's audited financial statements on a composite scale that runs from -1.0 to 3.0. At 1.5 or above it is financially responsible; from 1.0 to 1.4 it continues under zone conditions, including heightened cash monitoring; below 1.0 it posts a letter of credit. One bad year moves the score, and the score moves everything else.
The Program Participation Agreement expires on the day control changes. To keep aid flowing, the new owner files a materially complete application within 10 business days of closing and operates under a temporary provisional agreement until the Department rules, with the accreditor's and the state's approvals as conditions. That sequence, not the purchase agreement, sets the closing date.
The incentive-compensation ban forbids any commission or bonus based even indirectly on enrollments secured, whether paid to employees or to the outside firms that recruit for the school. A misrepresentation under the Department's rules includes a true statement that misleads by omission, and students carry it into borrower-defense claims. We review the script before the first call.
A program review opens with a document request, and the rules already say what the file must hold. Title IV records are kept for at least three years after the end of the award year, and unearned aid for a student who withdraws is returned within 45 days of the date the school determined the withdrawal. Reviewers test both, file by file.
Some proceedings and jurisdictions require particular admission or depth. We coordinate with additional or locally admitted counsel where a matter requires it, so the institution is represented without gaps.
We chart the institution's full regulatory position, covering accreditor standards, state authorization in every state where students sit, and Title IV program participation, and we flag where the three regimes disagree before any of them does.
Substantive-change notices to the accreditor, state authorization renewals, and Department of Education pre-acquisition review for any change of ownership are sequenced so no approval is sought before its predicate is in hand.
When a program review, audit, or accreditor show-cause lands, we manage the document production, frame the institutional response, and negotiate findings, because a final determination can carry liabilities and reporting obligations that outlast the review.
Provisional certification conditions, letters of credit, and monitoring requirements are worked down over time; the goal is full participation status and a compliance record that survives the next recertification cycle.
An institution answers to three regulators at once; it should only have to brief one lawyer.
Education regulatory counsel covers the federal, state, and accreditation rules that govern how an education institution operates, enrolls, and is funded. The work spans accreditation and state authorization, Title IV and student-financial-aid compliance, institutional governance, consumer-protection and advertising rules, data-privacy obligations, and the defense of program reviews, audits, and enforcement actions.
Hart David Carson LLP advises colleges and universities, proprietary and career schools, and online-program managers, together with the education-technology companies, investors and lenders who build and finance them. We counsel boards and management on structure, compliance and risk, and we coordinate with locally admitted counsel where a matter turns on the law of another jurisdiction. The question we hear most is whether a planned program, partnership or sale triggers a filing, and the answer usually turns on the accreditor's rules and the institution's participation status rather than on its size.
Yes. We represent institutions in matters before the U.S. Department of Education and in proceedings with accrediting agencies and state regulators, including program reviews, audits, recertification, and enforcement. We speak for the institution in front of those bodies, and we work with additional counsel where a particular forum or admission requires it.
Title IV of the Higher Education Act is the federal student-aid system, and an institution participates in it under a Program Participation Agreement with the Department of Education. Staying in requires continuing eligibility, administrative capability and financial responsibility, each tested every year: a compliance audit and audited financial statements are due within six months of the fiscal year end, the composite score is calculated from them, and the cohort default rate is published annually. A lapse in any one can bring provisional certification, a letter of credit or a funding hold, and the accreditor reads the same reports.
Before the decision is announced, because the approvals run in sequence. A new location or program needs the accreditor's substantive-change approval before students enroll and, for a provisionally certified institution, the Department's as well. An online expansion needs authorization in each state where students sit, or membership in the reciprocity agreement. A sale needs the 90-day notice to the Department. Each step is the predicate for the next, and a step taken out of order is usually what a program review later finds.
Yes, and the review runs on the Department's clock rather than the buyer's. The institution must give the Department at least 90 days' notice before the change and must tell its enrolled and prospective students; the accreditor and the state each approve the change separately; and the Department will not approve the new owner until those approvals are in hand. The purchase agreement is drafted around that sequence, with the closing conditions and the outside date set by the regulatory timeline rather than the reverse.
Buy-side and sell-side counsel for acquisitions, change-of-control transactions, and reorganizations, with the regulatory approvals an education deal requires built into the timeline.
Explore →Board structure, fiduciary duty, disclosure, and federal and state securities compliance for institutions and the companies that own and finance them.
Explore →Governance, disclosure, and stakeholder-risk advisory for institutions managing reputational, social, and governance obligations alongside their regulatory ones.
Explore →Reviewed by Jonathan D. Herpy, Sr., Senior Partner · Last updated October 2026 · Educational overview · Not legal advice
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