Sweet v. Cardona
To learn if you are a member of the class, and to find out more information for class members, click the link below.
The Latest
On May 23, June 13, and July 11, 2024, the court held status conferences on Plaintiffs’ Motion to Enforce the Settlement, which seeks accountability for the Department of Education’s failure to provide timely and complete settlement relief by the original due date. At this time, the Department has committed to completing Full Settlement Relief for substantially all class members in the automatic relief group by August 31, 2024. The Thursday, September 26, 2024 hearing revealed that The Department reports that it is now in “substantial compliance” with the settlement provisions relating to the automatic relief group.
However, The Department is once again in material breach of the settlement because it failed to meet the July 28, 2024, deadline to deliver relief to all members of “Decision Group 1.” This group includes approximately 33,000 class members who submitted borrower defense applications on or before December 31, 2017. The deadline for relief for Decision Group 1 was extended to December 20, 2024. If you haven’t received relief, reach out to sweet@ed.gov.
The deadline for relief for Decision Group 2 remains January 28, 2025.
The court also continued to impose strict parameters to ensure accountability.
All parties, including servicers, are to continue attending mandated biweekly meetings in person at the Department of Education.
FSA ombudsman Bonnie Latreille has been designated as the official point of contact at the Department of Education for class members to direct questions about the status of their relief. Class members can direct questions about the status of their settlement relief to Bonnie and her team at sweet@ed.gov.
On December 5, 2023, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral argument regarding the attempt by three institutions to stop the Sweet settlement from going forward. While the Ninth Circuit considers the case, the Department of Education will continue to discharge loans, issue refunds, and issue decisions under the terms of the approved settlement. We will update this page with further information as that appeal develops.
Upcoming Dates
For the automatic relief group:
August 31, 2024: You should receive Full Settlement Relief by this date. Please note: If you have a Direct Consolidation Loan that includes debt from both Exhibit C school(s) and non-Exhibit C school(s), please read our updated FAQ regarding the process for your refund. If you do not receive Full Settlement Relief by this date, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining which type(s) of relief (discharge, refund, credit repair) you are missing.
For the decision group:
July 28, 2024: If you submitted your BD application between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2019, you should have received a decision by this date.
December 20, 2024: If you received an approval for settlement relief on or before July 28, 2023, you should have received Full Settlement Relief by this date. This is an extended deadline granted to The Department by the court after we notified the Justice Department of a third material breach of the settlement, with the US Department of Education failing to deliver full settlement relief to all 33,000 people by the mandated July 28, 2024 deadline. If you do not receive relief by this date, please email sweet@ed.gov, with a copy to info@ppsl.org, explaining which type(s) of relief (discharge, refund, credit repair) you are missing.
Students React to Sweet Victory
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Students React to Sweet Victory ⏺
About Sweet v. Cardona
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Named Plaintiffs brought this lawsuit on behalf of themselves and all other federal student loan borrowers whose claims for loan cancellation (“Borrower Defense applications”) had been ignored by the Department of Education — many of them since 2015.
The law is clear: students who experienced fraud should not be required to pay back federal loans. Since the Department of Education repeatedly ignored these students’ legal rights, the only way they could have their voices heard was through the courts.
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June 25, 2019: Case is filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in the San Francisco Bay Area on June 25, 2019.
October 30, 2019: Case is certified as a class action.
December 2019: Unbeknownst to Plaintiffs, the Department begins issuing form denial notices to borrowers who had applied for loan cancellation.
April 2020: The first proposed settlement agreement is filed.
Spring 2020: Department of Education sends out tens of thousands of blanket denials of borrower defense claims, acting in bad faith under settlement agreement.
Fall 2020: In a historic hearing held on Zoom and attended by over 500 student borrowers, the judge finds the Department of Education was not acting in good faith and rejects the proposed settlement. The judge also orders discovery, allowing lawyers for the student borrowers in this case to obtain documents and to depose officials at the Department of Education.
March 2021: Borrowers file a supplemental complaint citing this new evidence and challenging the blanket denials.
June 22, 2022: The parties filed a proposed settlement agreement.
July 25, 2022: Borrowers file a response to predatory colleges’ meritless attempts to intervene in the settlement.
August 4, 2022: The court grants preliminary approval of the new settlement.
November 16, 2022: The court granted final approval of the settlement.
January 13, 2023: Three of the intervening schools filed notices of appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and moved the district court to stay the settlement pending their appeal.
February 24, 2023: The district court denied the motion to stay the settlement pending appeal.
February 27, 2023: The three intervenors moved the Ninth Circuit to stay the settlement pending appeal. While this motion is pending, the settlement will not take effect as to the three intervening schools.
March 29, 2023: The Ninth Circuit denied the intervenor schools’ motion to stay the settlement pending their appeals. This means that settlement relief can now proceed for class members from Lincoln Tech, Keiser/Everglades, and American National University, and will continue on course for everyone else.
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Over the past several decades, millions of students borrowed federal student loans to attend various for-profit colleges, including ITT Technical Institute, Corinthian Colleges, the Art Institutes, Salter College, Brooks Institute of Photography, and more.
Between 2015 and today, nearly 500,000 borrowers have asserted their right under federal law to discharge their federal student loans due to their schools’ misconduct (“borrower defense”). As it was legally obligated to do, the Department of Education started to adjudicate these claims in 2016, approving nearly 28,000 borrower defenses in the six-month period before January 20, 2017.
Then, under Secretary DeVos, the Department of Education halted all processing of borrower defense claims. As of June 2019, more than 200,000 students had a borrower defense application pending. Many had been unresolved for nearly four years.
The plaintiffs filed this lawsuit to demand that the Department do its job and start adjudicating their borrower defenses immediately. Over the course of this three-year litigation, the borrower defense backlog only grew, while the plaintiffs uncovered evidence that Department’s policies had stacked the deck against borrowers. The recently approved settlement agreement will resolve these long-pending applications and finally deliver justice to borrowers.
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June 25, 2019: Complaint
August 20, 2020: Motion for Case Management Conference
Student Affidavits from Motion for Case Management
October 10, 2020: Hearing Zoom Chat Transcript
October 23, 2020: Transcript of Fairness Hearing
October 30, 2020: Plaintiffs Response to Order to Show Cause
Affidavits in Support of Plaintiffs Response to Order to Show Cause
March 28, 2021: Supplemental Complaint
Supplemental Complaint Exhibits
February 24, 2022: Plaintiffs’ Response to Order re Class Member Letter with exhibit
June 9, 2022: Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment
June 22, 2022: Joint Motion for Preliminary Approval of Settlement
June 22, 2022: Settlement Agreement
June 23, 2022: Defendants’ Opposition and Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment
July 13, 2022: Lincoln Educational Services / American National University Motion to Intervene
July 13, 2022: Everglades College Inc. Motion to Intervene
July 14, 2022: Chicago School of Professional Psychology Motion to Intervene
July 25, 2022: Plaintiffs’ Consolidated Opposition to Motions to Intervene
July 25, 2022: Government’s Consolidated Opposition to Motions to Intervene
August 4, 2022: Preliminary Approval Order
August 9, 2022: Schedule for Final Approval
August 9, 2022: Corrected Exhibit C
August 9, 2022: Corrected Exhibit C
September 22, 2022: Joint Motion for Final Approval
November 16, 2022: Final Approval
January 27, 2023: Opposition to Motion To Stay Settlement Relief
March 9, 2023: Plaintiff’s Opposition to Motion To Stay Pending Appeal and Motion to Dismiss
March 24, 2023: Plaintiffs Reply in Support of Motion to Dismiss Appeals
March 29, 2023: Order Denying Motions to Dismiss
April 23, 2023: Supreme Court Order of Pending Case
May 4, 2023: Intervenors’ Opening Appellate Brief
May 30, 2023: First Quarterly Report under Settlement Agreement in Sweet et al. v. Cardona
August 2, 2023:Plaintiffs’ Response to Intervenors
August 2, 2023: Department of Education’s Response to Intervenors
August 28, 2023: Second Quarterly Report under Settlement Agreement in Sweet et al. v. Cardona
September 22, 2023: Intervenors’ Reply Brief
November 27, 2023: Third Quarterly Report under Settlement Agreement in Sweet et al. v. Cardona
February 2, 2024: Notice of Material Breach of Settlement Agreement
February 14, 2024: Second Notice of Material Breach of Settlement Agreement
February 16, 2024: Department of Education Response to First Notice of Material Breach
March 1, 2024: Department of Education Supplemental Letter to Notice of Material Breach of Settlement Agreement
March 1, 2024: Supplemental Letter to Meet & Confer Session
March 19, 2024: Motion to Enforce Settlement Agreement
April 2, 2024: Defendants’ Response To Plaintiffs’ Motion To Enforce
April 9, 2024: Plaintiffs’ Reply In Support Of Motion To Enforce Settlement Agreement
August 26, 2024: Third Notice of Settlement Breach
November 5, 2024: United States Court Of Appeals For The Ninth Circuit Decision
"On the day I graduated college, I never imagined that I would find myself locked in a nearly 20 year battle for justice against a for-profit education company that defrauded me, and against the federal government for failing to protect me from this fraud. More than a quarter million defrauded students have been waiting far too long for justice that should have come without delay, but for which we instead had to fight tooth and nail. But we didn’t give up. Defrauded borrowers stepped up to the plate over and over to share their stories, speak to the court, and refuse to take any of this lying down. Now, when I look back at the day I graduated from college, I think of a lesson my school never taught me — know your rights, and never stop fighting for them."
— Theresa Sweet, lead plaintiff in Sweet v. Cardona
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