Document and Entity Information - shares	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2015	May. 31, 2015
Document And Entity Information [Abstract]
Document Type	10-Q/A
Amendment Flag	true
Amendment Description	Restatement of Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements ITT Educational Services, Inc. (“we,” “us” or “our”) is filing this Amendment No. 1 (“Amended Filing”) to its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2015, originally filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on June 12, 2015 (the “Original Filing”), to amend and restate its unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and related disclosures for the three months ended March 31, 2015. As a result of the execution of enhanced internal controls over financial reporting that were implemented as part of the remediation of material weaknesses identified in a prior period, we determined there was an error in the application of the interest method used to calculate the interest rate used in accounting for the accretion of the debt discount associated with a senior debt arrangement (the “PEAKS Senior Debt”) that resulted in the misstatement of interest expense in previously reported interim periods. Within this Amended Filing, we are restating our previously issued condensed consolidated financial statements as of and for the three months ended March 31, 2015 to reflect this adjustment to the interest rate used in the application of the interest method to the discount on the PEAKS Senior Debt in that period. The effects of the restatement on our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements are a reduction in the amount of the debt discount and an increase in the carrying value of the PEAKS Senior Debt. The change in accretion in the three months ended March 31, 2015 was not materially different from the amount previously recorded. The restatement does not increase the total amount of non-cash interest expense that will be reported from the accretion of the debt discount on the PEAKS Senior Debt, but instead changes the timing of the recognition of that interest expense through the maturity date. The restatement also has no effect on our cash and cash equivalents or liquidity; cash flows from operating activities, financing activities or investing activities; or projections of our future cash payment obligations under our private education loan program guarantees. In this Amended Filing, we are restating: • our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet as of March 31, 2015 (unaudited) • our Condensed Consolidated Statement of Shareholders’ Equity for the three months ended March 31, 2015 (unaudited); and • the Notes to those condensed consolidated financial statements. See Note 2—Restatement of Previously Issued Financial Statements of the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information. Our previously restated condensed consolidated financial statements as of and for the three months ended March 31, 2014 included in this Amended Filing also reflect the correction of this error. A reconciliation of those previously reported amounts to the restated amounts is set forth in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q/A (Amendment No. 1) for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2014 filed with the SEC on the date hereof. In connection with the filing of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as a result of material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. For ease of reference, this Amended Filing amends and restates the Original Filing in its entirety. The following Items have been revised to reflect the impact of the restatement on the affected line items of our condensed consolidated financial statements: • Part I, Item 1 – Financial Statements • Part I, Item 2 – Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations • Part II, Item 6 – Exhibits We have also updated the signature page, the certifications of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer in Exhibits 31.1, 31.2, 32.1 and 32.2, and our unaudited consolidated financial statements formatted in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) in Exhibit 101. In addition, we have revised certain other Items in this Amended Filing solely to change cross-references to the numbers of the notes to our condensed consolidated financial statements resulting from a renumbering of the notes to add a note regarding the restatement. Except as provided in this Explanatory Note, or as indicated in the applicable disclosure, this Amended Filing has not been updated to reflect other events occurring after the filing of the Original Filing and does not modify or update information and disclosures in the Original Filing affected by subsequent events. Accordingly, this Amended Filing should be read in conjunction with our filings with the SEC subsequent to the date on which we filed the Original Filing, together with any amendments to those filings.
Document Period End Date	Mar. 31, 2015
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2015
Document Fiscal Period Focus	Q1
Trading Symbol	ESI
Entity Registrant Name	ITT EDUCATIONAL SERVICES INC
Entity Central Index Key	0000922475
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--12-31
Entity Filer Category	Accelerated Filer
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding		23,577,651