UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT Regulatory Information Management Services June 8, 2011 Via Electronic Mail

Ms. Anne Weismann Citizens for Responsive Ethics in Washington 1400 Eye St., N.W. Suite 450 Washington DC 20005 RE: FOIA Request No. 11-00026-F Dear Ms. Weismann: This is an interim response to your letter dated September 30, 2010 requesting information pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552. Your request was received in the FOIA Service Center (FSC) on the same date. Your request was forwarded to the appropriate offices within the Department of Education (the Department) for any responsive documents they may have. Your request sought any and all records from April 20, 2009, to the present pertaining to four for-profit companies: Corinthian Colleges, Inc., Kaplan, Higher Education (including Kaplan College and Kaplan University), Devry University, and the University of Phoenix.1 Based on a clarification made on December 22, 2010, the request sought not only comments submitted by [the Four Companies], but also any comments and documents related to the regulatory process in which they were mentioned or discussed. On April 12, 2011, the Department requested further clarification of the request due to the burdensome nature of the request. On May 17, 2011, the Department again sought and we have agreed to clarify the request as follows: to exclude records that do not include any substantive discussion of the Four Companies in relation to the program integrity regulations, including the draft regulations that merely mention the name of one negotiating team member who happened to be employed by Kaplan Higher Education. This exclusion would not include, inter alia, e-mails or letters to the Department from any of the Four Companies listed in the request about the Program Integrity regulations, e-mails to the Department from entities other than the Four Companies regarding any of the Four Companies in relation to program integrity regulations, and e-mails from or between Department officials regarding any of the Four Companies in relation to program integrity regulations, all of which continue to be responsive documents. Attached to this letter is a PDF file containing 218 pages of documents responsive to your request. At this time, the FOIA Service Center is awaiting responsive documents from and additional offices within the Department regarding your request. Once we receive them, they will be provided to you under separate cover.

Hereinafter, these entities are referred to as the Four Companies.

FOIA Request 11-00026 Page 2 However, certain information has been withheld according to the FOIA exemptions specified below: Records or portions of records relating to pre-decisional internal communications have been withheld pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552 (b)(5) of the FOIA and Departmental regulation 34 CFR 5.73(a). These provisions require us to withhold the governments deliberative process privilege, inter alia, protecting records of pre-decisional internal communications reflecting the views or recommendations of agency employees in connection with the government policy or legal matters that are both pre-decisional and deliberative in nature. Records or portions of records relating to personal information is exempt pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552 (b)(6) of the FOIA and Departmental regulation 34 CFR 5.71(a). Disclosure of this information would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

Appeal rights for any records or portions of records that are denied will be given to you in the final response letter to your request. If you have any questions, please contact the FSC at (202) 401-8365 or EDFOIAMANAGER@ed.gov. Sincerely,

FOIA Public Liaison FOIA Service Center Enclosures

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