On Feb. 4, 2016 Marinello Beauty School announced permanent closure of all of its 56 campuses, including one in Stockton. Questions inlcuding why was the school closing and what happened began to rise when the institution, in operation for more than 100 years, decided to close. “I’m worried that I’m going to have to start all over,” said former Marinello student Vicky Khamvongsa. The Department of Education, in a letter to the public, said Marinello School of Beauty was denied to participate in the Federal Student Financial Assistance Program due to the following reasons:

•  Marinello School of Beauty illegally disbursed Title IV Funds by fabricating high school diplomas of students enrolled in programs. Only eligible students may receive Title IV programs funds. However, to be eligible students must be academically qualified to study at a postsecondary level. Basically a student needs a high school diploma or equivalent from an approve school.
•  Marinello “callously disregarded student financial needs” by not disbursing the entire Direct Loan funds to its students. This caused students hardships and unnecessary stress, according to the letter issues to the Sacramento campus.
•  If students didn’t complete the program in the agreed schedule then Marinello would charge excessive overtime hours on their students.
•  Marinello wasn’t operating in a truthful manner because the school was misrepresenting its programs Students were promised to get an education and to be thoughts many in-depth training in all areas of cosmetology, nails and barbering so they could be successful in their job field.

The closure of the institution has affected about 4,300 students. None of students were giving any advance notice of the closure. The big question many have is what’s going too happened with the students that were attending this school. “The closure of the school has really impacted me because I was close to graduating,” said Khamvongsa. Well, according to the Federal Student Aid website students are being informed of the options that they have so that they can continue to purse there education despite of the situation. Some of the options are as follow: students are going to be given an opportunity to get official transcripts in case they want to transfer to another institution to complete a program or students can apply to see if they are eligible for a closed loan discharge. The process for a loan discharge process is stated as well. In addition to all of this information the U.S. Department of Education will having a national webinar for the Marinello students affected by the closure of the institution to assist students with other questions and concerns that they might have.