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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

College Challenges Accreditation Board

DALLAS (CN) - Miami-Jacobs Career College sued The Committee On Accreditation For Respiratory Care in Federal Court, challenging its authority to withhold accreditation of the respiratory therapy program at the school's Dayton, Ohio campus.

Miami-Jacobs claims the body that governs the scope of the defendant's authority, The Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs, has confirmed that the defendant has no power to withhold or grant the program's accreditation.

The school contends that after it pointed this out, the Committee recharacterized an appeal scheduled for Nov. 12. Now the Committee is calling it a hearing on whether to grant accreditation of the respiratory program.

"Without withdrawing its prior decision, CoARC claims that the new decision will supersede its prior improper decision to withhold accreditation," the college says in its complaint. "However, CoARC concedes that it is unable to identify any rule or procedure that gives it the authority to conduct the proposed action on November 12."

The school claims the Committee is making up the process and the rules up as it goes along, with the intention of imposing the results of its ad hoc processes and rules on the school.

And the school says the Committee forced it to submit information by Oct. 9, nearly 5 weeks before the Nov. 12 hearing.

"If the college submits documentation for CoARC to consider, it will be submitting to a standardless process before an agency that has already repeatedly and wrongfully tried to withdraw accreditation from the program, and which has issued a determination without legal authority to be decided by a policy and process which is not yet published or effective," the complaint states.

The school seeks declaratory relief and an injunction protecting it from due process violations. It wants the Committee enjoined taking any action on accreditation until it has the authority to do so and it has published its policies and procedures.

The school is represented by Gary Maze with Duane Morris of Houston.

Follow @davejourno
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