There is no single downloadable borrower defense school list, but the Department of Education has approved group discharges covering roughly a dozen institutions and issued formal misconduct findings against several more. If you attended one of these schools during the covered enrollment window, you may qualify for a full discharge of your federal Direct Loans, sometimes automatically. Borrowers from other schools can still file individual claims.
Schools With Approved Group Discharges
A group discharge means the Department found enough evidence of widespread misconduct that every borrower who attended during a defined period gets relief without filing an individual application. The largest group discharges announced so far:
- The Art Institutes — over $6.1 billion for borrowers who enrolled at any Art Institutes campus from January 1, 2004, through October 16, 2017. The Department found the schools misrepresented job placement rates across campuses nationwide.1Federal Student Aid. The Art Institutes Borrower Defense Executive Summary
- Corinthian Colleges (Everest, Heald, WyoTech) — approximately $5.8 billion covering roughly 560,000 borrowers who attended any Corinthian-owned school from its founding in 1995 through its closure in April 2015.2Federal Student Aid. Borrower Defense Findings
- Ashford University (now University of Arizona Global Campus) — approximately $4.5 billion in discharges announced in January 2025.3Federal Student Aid. Borrower Defense Updates
- ITT Technical Institute — nearly $3.9 billion for about 208,000 borrowers who attended from January 1, 2005, through ITT’s closure in September 2016.2Federal Student Aid. Borrower Defense Findings
- Westwood College — nearly $1.5 billion for borrowers who enrolled at any Westwood location from January 1, 2002, through November 17, 2015.3Federal Student Aid. Borrower Defense Updates
- Center for Excellence in Higher Education schools (Independence University, CollegeAmerica, Stevens-Henager College, California College San Diego) — over $1.15 billion, announced in January 2025.3Federal Student Aid. Borrower Defense Updates
- Marinello Schools of Beauty — around $238 million for approximately 28,000 borrowers who attended between January 2009 and Marinello’s closure in February 2016.2Federal Student Aid. Borrower Defense Findings
- Drake College of Business — $107 million, announced in January 2025.3Federal Student Aid. Borrower Defense Updates
- American Career Institute — discharges approved for all borrowers who took out federal loans to attend an ACI campus in Massachusetts. Maryland campuses are not covered.2Federal Student Aid. Borrower Defense Findings
- Lincoln Technical Institute — $1.4 million for borrowers in the criminal justice program at the Lowell, MA campus (2010–2012) or Somerville, MA campus (2010–2013). Other Lincoln Tech programs and campuses are not covered.3Federal Student Aid. Borrower Defense Updates
If you attended one of these schools during the covered dates, you should not need to file anything. The Department identifies eligible borrowers and processes relief automatically through your loan servicer. Check your servicer account to confirm the discharge posted, because group discharges can take months to work through the system.
Schools With Findings Requiring an Individual Application
Two large schools have formal misconduct findings but no automatic discharge. Borrowers must file an individual borrower defense application to claim relief.
DeVry University. The Department found that DeVry misled prospective students from 2008 through 2015 by advertising that 90% of graduates who actively sought employment found jobs in their field within six months. DeVry inflated that figure by counting students who already held jobs before enrolling and by excluding graduates whose searches didn’t go through DeVry’s career services office. Corrected, the actual rate dropped below 58%. Borrowers who enrolled during this period and relied on those claims can file for a 100% discharge of their related federal loans.4Federal Student Aid. DeVry University Borrower Defense Executive Summary
University of Phoenix. The Department found that Phoenix made substantial misrepresentations from September 21, 2012, through December 31, 2014, about partnerships with major employers. Phoenix told prospective students its relationships with companies such as AT&T and Microsoft would give graduates hiring advantages that didn’t actually exist. Borrowers who enrolled during that window and relied on those claims are eligible for 100% relief upon filing an individual application.5Federal Student Aid. University of Phoenix Borrower Defense Executive Summary
Schools Covered by the Sweet v. Cardona Settlement
The Sweet v. Cardona class action settlement, approved by a federal court in 2022, is the largest single borrower defense action. It resolved pending claims for roughly 200,000 borrowers who had filed against more than 150 schools and were waiting on decisions.6Federal Student Aid. Sweet v. Cardona Settlement Agreement Exhibit C Under the settlement, those claims were resolved with automatic full discharges for borrowers who attended any school listed in the agreement’s Exhibit C.
The Exhibit C list overlaps heavily with the group discharge schools above (Corinthian, ITT, DeVry, and the Art Institutes all appear), but it also includes many smaller schools that never received separate group findings. Two conditions apply: you must have filed a borrower defense claim before June 2022, and your school must appear on Exhibit C. If both are true, your discharge should already have been processed. The full Exhibit C school list is posted as a PDF on the Federal Student Aid website.
How to Check if Your School Qualifies
The Department publishes findings and group discharge announcements on the Federal Student Aid borrower defense updates page at studentaid.gov.3Federal Student Aid. Borrower Defense Updates Each entry lists the school, the enrollment dates covered, and whether relief is automatic or requires an application. Executive summaries linked from that page describe the specific misconduct the Department found.
The page updates as investigations conclude. New group discharges have been announced as recently as January 2025, so a school not currently listed may still be under review.
If Your School Isn’t on the List
Absence from the published findings doesn’t mean you have no claim. It means the Department has not completed a group investigation for that school. You can still file an individual borrower defense application for any school you believe misled you, and many individual claims against schools without group findings are still pending.
One boundary worth flagging: borrower defense covers only federal Direct Loans, including Direct Subsidized, Direct Unsubsidized, and Direct PLUS. Private student loans from banks or other lenders are not eligible under any circumstances, because borrower defense is a federal program tied to the Higher Education Act.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 20 USC 1087e – Terms and Conditions of Loans Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) and Federal Perkins Loans are not directly eligible either, but they can become eligible if consolidated into a Direct Consolidation Loan. Consolidation restarts certain clocks and can affect other repayment benefits, so weigh the trade-offs before consolidating for this reason alone.