Vatterott College Closure

Background

Vatterott Educational Centers, Inc. is the parent company of Vatterott College and L'Ecole Culinaire. Vatterott College operated seven locations in Missouri: Berkeley, Joplin, Kansas City, Springfield, St. Charles, St. Louis (Extreme Institute), and Sunset Hills. L'Ecole Culinaire operated in two locations in Missouri: Kansas City and St. Louis.

Vatterott notified the Missouri Department of Higher Education (MDHE) on December 17, 2018, the school was closing its campuses effective immediately.

Vatterott Educational Centers provided this letter regarding the immediate closure to enrolled students. Vatterott will continue to employ a small administrative unit for a short time to manage the website, answer calls and emails, work on transfer arrangements, and provide transcripts.

Official Transcripts

Former students of Vatterott Colleges, Court Reporting Institute, and L'Ecole Culinaire may obtain transcripts by contacting Parchment, the official record provider for Vatterott transcripts, by going to https://www.parchment.com/vatterott/.

Older Vatterott College records (1970s - 80s) were provided to the Missouri Department of Higher Education in hard copy. The Department is working on digitizing these records, but completion of the process in order to locate specific records may take several months. If you attended Vatterott College in Missouri during that timeframe and are unable to retrieve your records from Parchment, please fill out the Student Record Verification Request form and return to the department via mail or fax. Once digitization is complete, department staff will search for your records and will contact you at the email address provided.

Federal Student Loans

The MDHE cannot grant federal student loan discharges. Calls requesting loan discharge will be referred to the US Department of Education and to the student's loan servicer.

Please click here to learn more about discharging your federal student loans. Contact the US Department of Education and/or your federal loan servicer for additional information on this process. The MDHE created a cheat sheet for the closed school federal loan discharge process. Please contact your loan servicer for the most up-to-date information.

We strongly urge students and parents NOT to pay for any services like loan forgiveness or loan discharge that the Department of Education provides for free. Please visit http://blog.ed.gov/2016/01/dont-be-fooled-you-never-have-to-pay-for-student-loan-help/ for more information. For additional information on student financial aid and other options available, please also see information provided by the U.S. Department of Education available by clicking here.

Veterans

For information on GI Bill benefits, please contact the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Education Call Center at 1-888-442-4551 or visit the GI Bill website. If the link does not give adequate information, please call 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243) for assistance.

Cash / Self-Pay Students

Schools certified to operate in Missouri are required to maintain a security deposit. The deposit is to provide at least partial restitution to students if adequate provisions are not made by the school upon closure. As Vatterott College and L'Ecole Culinaire campuses did not have approved teach out plans in place prior to closure, the schools may be required to forfeit the security deposit.

Cash / self-pay students who were enrolled in a Missouri campus of Vatterott College or L'Ecole Culinaire as of the date of closure, or students who were on an authorized Leave of Absence from one of those campuses (must have documented approval for LOA), may be eligible for reimbursement of a portion of the tuition and fees paid.

For students who received federal student aid, the department cannot reimburse you for any federal loans or for grants you received, such as the Pell grant or GI Bill. Please contact the USDE and your loan servicer for information.

The MDHE is currently documenting the extent of the loss suffered by students as a result of the school closure. To that end, the MDHE requests students who were enrolled as of December 17, 2018, to locate copies of your enrollment agreement as well as copies of any receipts or cancelled checks for payments made to the school. Submit copies to:

Missouri Department of Higher Education
Proprietary School Certification
PO Box 1469
Jefferson City, MO 65102-1469