Earlier this summer my wife and I enrolled our 3 year old in a Christian preschool...a 3 day/week program in Houston. After the May deadline, around 8/20 of this year, I learned that my company was transferring me to a new state prior to day 1 of my son's enrollment. Naturally we contacted the school to apprise them if the situation, only to be told that we would owe an entire years worth of tuition. Many phone calls between my wife and the school leadership ensued, wherein my wife informed the school that we didn't intend to pay for unused tuition. The contract does say that we were on the hook for tuition regardless of circumstances, but a transfer out of state is one we never contemplated.

The school asked for a letter from my employer confirming the transfer, which we provided. They asked if my employer would cover the unused tuition, which my wife denied. The school asked if we would allow my son to attend for two weeks--in essence allowing mandatory tuition insurance (which we were never informed about) to kick in. In our opinion this amounted to insurance fraud, and regardless, we were on our way within the week to a new state. The school asked if we would cover tuition until my son's spot was filled, to which my wife replied "you will have no motivation to fill a spot that is being paid for..." which seems fair. The "negotiations" were left with my wife attending a special board session wherein our motives were questioned and we were left with the sense that our credit fate was in their hands. Surely, we thought, cooler heads would prevail. The board meeting was supposed to have occurred on August 28th of this year. On September 1st, we officially moved into our leased home in the new state.

On October 19th, without further communication from this church school, my wife and I began receiving aggressive debt collection calls from a firm claiming to represent the school. Several such calls were made to my direct line at my new office, in spite of my imploring the collection co that I was unable to receive such calls at work. I have since recorded threats, inaccuracies and untruths during these calls.

In an attempt to return to a sensible solution, I have, in the past several weeks reached out directly to the school. These attempts to negotiate or reason have fallen on deaf ears. I've asked for Board contact info to no avail. I've asked what we can do to make this nightmare go away. Without fail I've been referred to the collector or completely ignored.

Worth noting here: we did sign a contact that said we would remain on the hook for tuition. Also worth noting, we were never afforded the opportunity to pay for the insurance, and neither the tuition fee schedule or the details of said insurance were a part of the contact we signed.

The collector has now contacted our current landlord (home builder we plan to buy from, closing scheduled for this week in fact) and a hard credit pull has put closing in jeopardy.

I was able to record a conversation with the collector today; I wish I could post audio of the nonsense and vitriol that this "agent" of a Christian institution spewed. I have engaged an attorney for various violations of FDCPA and state law, but my question is: do we have any recourse as far as the contract? Side note: we know via email that the school has filled the spot (via surreptitious friend), although the school continues to deny that the spot is filled. "We might consider adding a spot for your daughter" they wrote to our friend. "The spot has not been filled..." they wrote to me.

Keep in mind, we're talking less than two months after school began. Our total claimed debt is approximately $7000.

Any/all advice appreciated.