(AP) The U.S. Education Department said today it will erase student debt for thousands of borrowers who attended a for-profit college chain that made exaggerated claims about its graduates’ success in finding jobs.

Among those colleges are former students of ITT Technical Institute, a chain that closed in 2016 after being dealt a series of government sanctions. One of those facilities was located in Austintown. The new loan discharges will clear more than $500 million in debt.

Borrower advocates applauded the new approvals but called for swift relief for the thousands of other students whose claims are still pending, including many who attended ITT Tech.

Many of the 18,000 claims from ITT Tech were approved after the Education Department found that the company lied about graduates’ job prospects. The agency said ITT made ârepeated and significant misrepresentations about its ability to help students get jobs. In reality, many students said it was harder to find employment when they listed ITT on their resumes, the department said.

Other claims were approved after the department found that ITT misled students about their ability to transfer course credits to other colleges. Credits were rarely accepted elsewhere, the department said, leaving students with “little to no progress” in their academic careers.

Borrowers will be notified about their claim approvals in the coming weeks, the agency said.