Higher education in the United States is largely decentralized, dependent on about 75 regional, national and specialized accrediting agencies to serve as watchdogs for postsecondary institutions that have access to federal student aid. The agencies are relied upon to regularly evaluate the quality of institutions to ensure they comply with federal education law. The accreditors are responsible for flagging and penalizing schools that do not.

Most public, private and nonprofit higher education institutions are regionally accredited, while national and specialized accreditors tend to draw for-profit and trade schools. To receive federal financial aid funding, schools must be accredited by an Education Department-recognized agency. The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools was responsible for about 240 institutions that received $4.7 billion in taxpayer money when it came under scrutiny in 2015.

For-profit accreditation has faced scrutiny dating back to the early years of the G.I. Bill, when the institutions were accused of preying on veterans who received large sums of federal education funding when they returned from war.

But it had been decades since the for-profit sector felt as targeted as it did under the Obama administration, industry leaders say. And they contend that a reinstatement of the banished accrediting council could remedy the unfair treatment meted out by the previous White House. A federal judge recently ruled that the department had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in determining the council’s fate.

“All we have ever asked for is due process and fairness,” said Steve Gunderson, a former Republican congressman who leads the trade organization Career Education Colleges and Universities. “We now hope the current secretary will recognize the need to work with A.C.I.C.S. and the schools impacted by this ruling.”

The independent advisory committee that vets accrediting bodies, called the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, will consider the council’s application in May, just a few weeks before dozens of schools serving at least 100,000 students that are still operating under its purview will lose accreditation.

The chairman of the bipartisan committee is Arthur Keiser, a political appointee who challenged the panel’s original recommendation to terminate the council’s recognition. He also formerly ran a for-profit college, Keiser University, that settled claims of misrepresentation before he sold it to a nonprofit organization started by his family.