LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - A second Little Rock school shuts down, less than three weeks after ITT Tech closed its doors. This time it's a beauty school with no advance warning for students or clients.
Classes and appointments canceled at the 11th hour without explanation at the Regency Beauty Institute. Students now heartbroken, after they said they put their time and money in to a school now closed with no answers.
"It wasn't but two or three hours after I got out of school, I was already home, and I got a call from corporate, I guess, saying they were announcing they were closing that day,” said student Emily Romine.
The Shackleford Road location is not the only one to close. All 79 locations nationwide have closed their doors for good. Students said they weren't given any notice.
"As soon as I find out what schools they're going to partner with, to transfer us to, I'll just look at those schools.”, said Romine.
Romine added Regency was the school closest to her and most in-line with her budget.
One student said her tuition was $19,000 and had to be paid in-full and up-front before classes began. Many students had grants, scholarships, and loans to help pay for the tuition. So far students haven't been told by Regency if they will be getting their money and scholarships back.
"They have been talking about transferring my hours to another school," Romine explained. "As far as getting our money back, we haven't been able to get ahold of them just yet."
Mary Overton-Hall was supposed to have her hair done today. We found her outside Regency, unsure why she couldn't get in. She got a call that her appointment was canceled, but didn't understand why. She came by anyway and found the notice on the door.
"I am just stunned because I was here last week and I figure, well, they should have known something at least to not say what was going on and give us more time," said Overton-Hall.
The school's campus manager was unable to talk to us on camera but said she didn't know the school was closing until 5 o'clock Wednesday night and is now out of a job. She directed us to the corporate line, which directed us to back their website.
It said, "the organization does not have the cash to continue to run the business."
The Regency website blames declining numbers of students and negative image of for-profit schools for the closures.