MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – ITT Educational Services, Inc. says it will cease operations at all ITT Technical Institutes following “actions of and sanctions from the U.S. Department of Education.”

According to a new release from the educational services company, an overwhelming majority of its 8,000 employees have been let go after the positions were eliminated with the institute’s closure.

“It is with profound regret that we must report that ITT Educational Services, Inc. will discontinue academic operations at all of its ITT Technical Institutes permanently after approximately 50 years of continuous service. With what we believe is a complete disregard by the U.S. Department of Education for due process to the company, hundreds of thousands of current students and alumni and more than 8,000 employees will be negatively affected,” the release states.

The U.S. Department of Education says ITT Educational Services, Inc. has increasingly been the subject of state and federal investigations and this year it has twice been found out of compliance with its accreditor’s standards. The department notes that ITT’s financial moves have put taxpayer funded federal student aid at risk, forcing the Department of Education to increase its financial oversight over ITT. The school was required to increase its cash reserves to cover potential damages to taxpayers and students, but after the school failed to do so, the Department of Education prohibited ITT from enrolling new students with federal aid.

ITT addresses the regulations by the Department of Education in its release saying, “This action of our federal regulator to increase our surety requirement to 40 percent of our Title IV federal funding and place our schools under “Heightened Cash Monitoring Level 2,” forced us to conclude that we can no longer continue to operate our ITT Tech campuses and provide our students with the quality education they expect and deserve.”

For ITT students with federal student loans, the Department of Education says you may be eligible for a closed school loan discharge. Information on that criteria and the discharge process can be found here.

News13 reached out to the ITT campus in Myrtle Beach, but only received a recording stating no one was available to take our call.