Kaplan, Inc. Agrees on $1.6M Settlement For Charges Made To CHI Broomall's Surgical Technology Program

PHILADELPHIA–'s surgical technology program that has been undergoing a whistle-blower lawsuit since 2007 was finalized by Federal District Court in Philadelphia last Friday, reported The New York Times.

Kaplan, Inc., the parent company of CHI Institute and a subsidiary of the Washington Post Co., agreed to settle for $1.6 million to terminate the investigations and charges made in relation to the school's surgical technology program that was previously offered at its Broomall campus. The program has ceased from enrolling students in the program since 2008.

According to The New York Times, the lawsuit was filed in 2007 by David Goodstein, the former director of education at Kaplan’s CHI Institute, who charged that Kaplan continued to enroll students in the Broomall surgical technology program even though it did not have enough of the clinical placements the students needed to graduate.

Upon participating in the program, students would have to complete a certain number of classes as well as externships at a hospital or medical center in a surgery setting. However, a number of students were placed on "leaves of absences" while they waited for a placement in an externship that never took place.

"The settlement includes nearly $500,000 to be paid on behalf of 43 students who had taken out student loans for the program but were not able to graduate because the school, one of Kaplan’s for-profit campuses, had no placement for them," states The New York Times.

No admission of wrongdoing was included in the settlement.