Kendrick Gaussoin attended Brooks Institute, a for-profit college in California, where he was pursuing a degree in photography. A decade ago, the school unexpectedly shut down, leaving Gaussoin and numerous classmates with substantial student loan debt and no viable path to complete their degrees. He was initially ineligible for federal loan forgiveness under the standard requirements, which specify that borrowers must either have been enrolled at the time of closure or departed within six months prior.
Federal law has mandated for more than three decades that the secretary of education cancel debts for qualified borrowers whose schools close suddenly through a process called “closed school discharge.” A government audit found that between 2010 and 2020, over 1,100 colleges closed, leaving approximately 246,000 borrowers potentially eligible for this discharge.
In January 2025, during the final days of the Biden administration, the Education Department expanded eligibility criteria for borrowers who had attended several closed schools, including Brooks. The expansion extended the look-back window to include any borrower enrolled as of May 6, 2015, citing “exceptional circumstances” as justification. Gaussoin, who had taken a leave of absence before returning as the school closed, suddenly qualified for forgiveness under this new standard.
However, when Gaussoin applied for his discharge in late August, the Trump administration denied his request, stating he did not meet traditional eligibility requirements. The Education Department characterized the Biden-era expansion as “unlawful,” despite the fact that a similar expansion had been implemented during the first Trump administration in 2019 by then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos using identical authority.
A lawsuit was filed this week by Student Defense, a nonprofit advocacy organization, against the Department of Education on behalf of Gaussoin and potentially thousands of other borrowers. Legal experts argue that reversing the policy changes would require the Trump administration to provide formal legal justification and public explanation, as the Biden administration had done when implementing the expansion. The Education Department has declined to provide such documentation.
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