WellSpring closes Lawrence campus, leaves students days from graduation

WellSpring School of Allied Health shut its Lawrence campus at 947 New Hampshire St. without warning, leaving massage therapy students days from graduation and scrambling to protect the money, clinical hours and job plans tied to the program. An email sent June 3 said the closure was effective immediately because of financial duress, and students who expected to finish within a couple of class or clinic days suddenly had no clear path forward.

The Lawrence shutdown was part of a broader collapse that hit the school’s campuses in Lawrence, Kansas City, Missouri, and Springfield, Missouri. For Lawrence students, the timing turned an already expensive training program into a costly interruption. Some had nearly finished the coursework needed to move on to licensing or employment, but the closure left them unsure how to complete remaining requirements or whether another school would accept their credits.

That uncertainty has immediate financial consequences. FOX4 reported that students paid between $15,000 and $26,000 for the program, while federal data showed the school charged $16,500 in tuition and fees for 2024-25, plus $2,086 for books. Federal records also listed 19 employees, including 15 instructors, and 90 students in massage therapy or medical assisting programs in fall 2024. The Kansas City Star reported the school had about 149 students across its three campuses.

The closure also landed on a school with warning signs already in place. Wellspring’s Kansas City campus had been on the U.S. Department of Education’s watch list for shaky financial stability and had been under heightened cash monitoring since September 2020. FOX4 reported the school carried about $2 million in corporate debt and several million dollars in debt overall, and that owners had hired ReVera Capital in February to help determine the next steps.

Missouri higher-education officials said they are working with the Missouri Board of Therapeutic Massage to help students recover transcripts and figure out whether they can finish elsewhere. They urged students to download unofficial transcripts, financial ledgers, receipts, prior 1098 tax forms and grade or course confirmations from the student portal before access disappears. On June 16, the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools withdrew institutional accreditation for WellSpring’s Kansas City, Lawrence, Springfield and Wichita campuses, subject to appeal.

Founded in 1988 as the Massage Therapy Training Institute, WellSpring had become a key training pipeline for massage students in Lawrence and beyond. Its abrupt collapse now leaves students trying to salvage months of work, tuition and career preparation after the school stopped short of the finish line.