TWC investigation finds incorrect reporting of student job placements
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) has notified ATI Enterprises Inc. (ATI) that an investigation of graduate employment reports from three of its Dallas-area ATI career schools revealed violations of the Texas Education Code. The career schools two of which are located in Dallas and one in Garland were found to have reported late and incorrect student employment information.
ATI which is based in North Richland Hills and owns and operates 16 schools in Texas was notified last week that three campuses will have conditions placed on their Certificates of Approval (licenses) effectively placing them in a probationary status.
The Texas Education Code requires career schools licensed by TWC to report on an annual basis whether their graduates are employed in jobs related to their field of study. TWCs employment standard is that at least 60 percent of graduates are employed in training-related jobs. The three ATI campuses failed to meet deadlines for the reports and submitted reports that TWC found to be inaccurate.
Due to inaccuracies identified at the three campuses TWC has questioned the validity of the graduate reporting for all ATI-owned schools. As a result TWC is requiring ATI to hire an approved third party auditor to verify the graduate employment data for its schools in Texas and submit those findings to TWC. Pending the outcome of the audit the graduate placement results for all ATI-owned schools are considered provisional. In addition new enrollments of students funded through the Workforce Investment Act will not be allowed at ATI-owned schools until further notice.
TWC licenses and regulates more than 500 career schools and colleges in Texas which provide vocational training to more than 150000 students annually. TWC makes annual site visits to campuses and monitors the qualifications of faculty quality of facilities class size student completion rates student employment rates and other criteria.
In addition to monitoring by TWC some programs are coregulated with other Texas governing bodies such as the Texas Board of Nursing and the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services. TWC also investigates student complaints and reports of unlicensed schools.
