California cracks down on computer boot camps

California consumer protection officials are threatening to close a group of computer coding boot camps that train people to work in the technology industry, saying they failed to get licensed as private schools before they started accepting students.

The Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education issued citation letters this month to at least six computer-programming academies in the San Francisco Bay Area. The letters order the schools to immediately stop enrolling students and to issue refunds to those currently enrolled until they receive approval to operate.

The agency says the schools could also face fines of $50,000.

Shereef Bishay, co-founder of Dev Bootcamp, says the company is eager to comply but shutting its doors while it waits to hear from the state would be catastrophic for the 60 people now taking classes and the hundreds more signed up through the summer.

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