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First you need to know if the school still owns the account and are reporting a balance. If they do and you get the CA to PFD, it will only remove their account, not the OCs. You would then need to send the school GW letters.
Since the school said they will take the payment, I would venture to guess they still own the account.
You can pay the OC in full then DV the CA. It might work, it might not.
Is this your only collections? It is really hurting your score because it is so new.
Can you PIF? If you can, I would DV the CA and if they validate send a PFD request. If they say no I would send another one to someone else in the company. Just be persistent, keep sending them.
Here is my read.
Assume the OC still owns the debt.
The OC has never reported any delinquencies to the CRA, so it is only the CA reporting that is affecting your credit score, correct?
The OC referred the debt for collection, and the CA then posted their collection activity to your CR.
I know of no provision of the FCRA that compels a CA to delete prior, and accurate, reporting of their collection activity if the OC makes their own settlement of the debt, without involvement and consent of the CA to also delete. Sure, the OC/CA contract is thus null because there is no longer a debt to seek collectiion upon, but I see no legal provision that would complel the CA to delete their prior reporting.
DV is, IMHO, a waste of time if the debt is legit. It has nothing to do with credit reporting, and has no response date from the CA.
PIF with the hope of later GW deletetion has low chance of success.
I would renew PFDs to the CA.