Class action claims the Chicago School of Professional Psychology is a degree mill.

Los Angeles, CA - Students claim in a class action that the Los Angeles campus of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology recruited them by lying that it was accredited by the American Psychological Association.

Miranda Jo Truitt and three other named plaintiffs sued the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and its subsidiaries, including TCS Global, in Superior Court. They allege fraud, conspiracy, false advertising and consumer law violations.

Also named as defendants are the California Graduate Institute and the school's national president Michelle Nealon-Woods and "lead faculty" member of the Los Angeles campus, David Sitzer.

The students claim the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, or TCS, was "ostensibly formed, organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code for the 'advancement of education and science,' but in fact is being operated by its management team for the benefit of private interests for financial profit and personal gain through a network of interrelated companies and entities owned and controlled by TCS. TCS's profit motive is best evidenced by the fact that substantial funds totaling millions of dollars were exchanged between TCS and a number of these interrelated companies and entities from sources that included tuition payments from TCS students, including plaintiffs and other 2008 cohorts and the members of the class herein. Moreover, the misconduct of defendants complained of herein was done for the purpose of padding the roles to ensure the profitability of TCS's fledgling Los Angeles campus."

The students say they enrolled at the L.A. campus during the fall 2008 semester, based on oral and written promises that the school was accredited by the American Psychological Association.

At some point - and continuing through June 2012 - the defendants changed their promises, and said that the campus would be accredited before the 2008 class graduated, according to the complaint.

The students say that attending an APA-accredited school is essential to landing a job in the psychology field, and in California, candidates who did not attend an accredited school cannot sit for board certification. The process begins when a school submits a "self-study" which is reviewed by the APA's commission on accreditation and - if accepted - takes an average of 18 months to complete the other steps.

"At all times herein mentioned, TCS's Los Angeles Campus was in fact a 'degree mill,' a dubious provider of educational offerings or operations whose degrees and certificates may not even be acknowledged by other institutions when students seek to transfer. Similarly, prospective employers may not acknowledge degrees and certificates from the Los Angeles Campus due to its lack of APA accreditation, just like other Southern California professional schools that are owned and operated by TCS-related entities that are also 'degree mills,' such as the Santa Barbara and Ventura Colleges of Law, where the California Bar passage rates for graduates from these 'degree mills' is typically less than 10 percent," the students say in their complaint.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/11/15/52281.htm