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Creative Images Institute of Cosmetology closes both Dayton-area campuses with immediate effect

Creative Images Institute of Cosmetology, a beauty school in the Dayton, Ohio area that opened in 1993, closed its Vandalia and Washington Township campuses on 10 November 2026. Staff and students heard the same day. The school had about 70 students last year, according to Niche.

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Staff at the Washington Township campus, 568 Miamisburg-Centerville Road, were called into a meeting when they arrived for work on Tuesday, 10 November, and told that both sites were shutting at once, the Dayton Daily News reported. The Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board confirmed to WHIO that it had been notified both campuses were closed from that day. The other campus is at 7535 Poe Avenue in Vandalia. WHIO said several students rang the station after learning of the closure that day.

The school has given no reason. Employees sent questions about tuition refunds to the Vandalia campus, where nobody answered the phone, the Daily News said. On Tuesday afternoon the school's website still offered enrolment links but carried no notice of the closure and no guidance for enrolled students, and its admissions numbers did not connect. Neither report mentioned a bankruptcy filing or any other court case.

Attendance cost between US$10,000 and more than US$18,000 a year in 2023-24, depending on the course and the student's circumstances, according to figures from the school's website cited by the Daily News. Salon management, cosmetology instruction, nail technician and cosmetology courses were among the most popular. How many people worked there is not known.

Neither report said any refund plan, teach-out arrangement or transfer route had been announced. Ohio's rules for licensed beauty schools require a school that shuts to give the state board a certified record of each student's training, plus a roll of the students enrolled when it closed showing how each one will complete the course.

Why it matters: About 70 students who paid five-figure fees a year have no word yet on refunds, their training hours or where they can finish their courses. Staff were told on the day that the school was closing for good.

If this affects you

  • Ohio Administrative Code rule 4713-5-14 requires a cosmetology school that shuts to give the Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board a certified record of each student's training and a roll of enrolled students showing how each will finish. codes.ohio.gov
  • Federal Student Aid's school closure form says Direct, FFEL and Perkins loans can be discharged for students enrolled when their campus closed, or who withdrew within 180 days before, if they did not finish the course through a teach-out. studentaid.gov
  • The same form says the U.S. Department of Education may grant a closed school discharge without any request from the borrower once a year has passed since the closure, if it finds the borrower eligible. studentaid.gov

Sources

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