On March 31, 2017, ACICS filed a motion for summary judgment in United States District Court of the District of Columbia seeking to vacate the Decision of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education terminating ACICS’s recognition as an accrediting agency (the “Secretary’s Decision”) and all related directives from the Department. ACICS also requested that the Court return ACICS’s Petition for continued recognition to the Department of Education for reconsideration.
ACICS has maintained since December 2016 that the substantial procedural flaws in the re-recognition process, culminating in the Secretary’s Decision, amounted to an unprecedented violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. Specifically, ACICS argued in its Motion for Summary Judgment that:
- the Secretary failed to consider all available relevant information, including 36,000 pages of evidence submitted by ACICS in response to a specific request from the Office of the Under Secretary;
- the Secretary failed to consider evidence related to ACICS’s restructured leadership and changes to the means of measuring student achievement among ACICS member institutions; and
- the Secretary’s decision was cursory and did not reflect the depth of analysis required under the Administrative Procedure Act.
Pursuant to a court order, the Department’s response and opposition to ACICS’s motion is due April 28, 2017. Briefing on the motions will be completed as of May 26, 2017.