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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Vatterott College has closed down all of its campuses across the U.S. on Monday afternoon, effective immediately, and that includes the Kansas City campus.

The Missouri Department of Education confirmed that staff and students were informed of the closure Monday. They were asked to gather their personal belongings and leave the building.

Vatterott said the closures were due to financial difficulties. The company provided the following explanation in a letter to students:

“To our deep regret, changes in economic and regulatory conditions in recent years have had a significant, prolonged, negative impact on the Vatterott institutions. These changes also have made it difficult to secure additional financing or capital. In order to address these challenges, we entered into a Missouri state receivership and identified a buyer that was interested in purchasing Vatterott and investing the time and resources Vatterott would need to stabilize and flourish. We successfully signed a letter of intent with this buyer, and were prepared to move forward with a sale. Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Education recently decided to significantly increase the restrictions on Vatterott’s participation in the federal financial aid programs. Vatterott is unable to continue operation under these restrictions, and consequently, is unable to complete the aforementioned sale. The Department imposed these restrictions despite the presence of an interested buyer and our clear communication that such restrictions would result in the school’s closure.”

Vatterott College have seven locations in Missouri: Berkeley, Joplin, Kansas City, Springfield, St. Charles, St. Louis and Sunset Hills. They also have locations in Cleveland, Des Moines, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Wichita and Quincy, Illinois.

Vatterott Education Centers Inc. also operates the culinary school L’Ecole Culinaire in Kansas City and St. Louis. A sign on the door of L’Ecole Culinaire on the Plaza Tuesday morning announcing the closure.

L’Ecole Culinaire on the Country Club Plaza is also closing because Vatterot College runs it.

The company said it is working to find other schools that will take Vatterott’s students on transfer so they can complete their programs, but those details have not been finalized yet.

Any students with questions about the closure process are being asked to email closure@vatterott.edu.