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Dozens of complaints filed after for-profit school suddenly closed

PITTSBURGH — Dozens of complaints have been filed with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office after a for-profit school suddenly closed last week.

"We're going to fight for those students.Wwe're going to do everything in our power to hold Brightwood accountable," said Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

He's talking about the closing of Brightwood Career Institute, a for-profit trade school, which had a downtown campus in Pittsburgh that abruptly closed Friday.

"We want to understand why that happened and we want to do everything we can to help people get their loans forgiven or their money back," Shapiro said.

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Some local students have pre-paid for coursework and haven't gotten a refund. Others were only 10 weeks from graduating and don't know how to complete their studies.

"We've seen example after example of these for-profit colleges in Pennsylvania that leave students in the lurch; they either shut their doors or don't deliver on the education they promised," Shapiro said.

There are 1,500 students in Pennsylvania who were enrolled at Brightwood campuses in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Nearly 200 went to the now-shuttered school on Penn Avenue.

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The company is headquartered in Alabama.

Students aren't just worried about their money but also their transcripts. Some told Channel 11 they haven't gotten them and they need them to enroll in another school.

"We've received 28 complaints to date and I imagine after this piece today, we'll receive many more," Shapiro said.

Shapiro is also working with the state department of education to help students affected by the closure.