Unified Agenda
Department of Education: 2026 Regulatory Agenda
Every rulemaking the ED has on its regulatory agenda in the 2026 Unified Agenda. Proposed rules, final rules, and long-term actions, each with the agency's own summary and its latest status.
Source: the 2026 Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda, published by OIRA on July 3, 2026 (reginfo.gov). The ED lists 19 active actions plus 5 completed this cycle. Refreshed as the agenda changes.
Regulatory Plan marks the agency’s most significant planned actions, singled out by OIRA in the Regulatory Plan that accompanies this edition.
What changed since the Spring 2025 agenda
Between editions, the ED added 17 new rules, changed the stage on 4, and dropped 3 from the agenda. The official agenda only shows you today’s snapshot. We keep the history, so you can see what actually moved.
- New this edition. Accountability (entered the Completed stage)
- Moved. Accreditation Issues (Prerule to Proposed Rule)
- Moved. Documentation of Foreign Source Gifts and Contracts, Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (Proposed Rule to Prerule)
and 21 more changes this edition, including 3 rules that dropped off the agenda entirely.
Track the ED agenda freeSignificant, priority, and finalized rules are shown in full below. Routine actions are condensed to a line, with full summaries for every rule on the dashboard.
Slated for a final rule. Several have already published in the Federal Register, which we mark on each; the rest are still pending.
Elimination of Disparate Impact Theory Under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
The Department intends to remove the regulation under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that utilizes a disparate impact theory of race-based discrimination, to align Department regulations with Supreme Court precedent that requires Title VI violations to rest upon intentional discrimination, to otherwise ensure compliance with constitutional and statutory requirements, and to remove outdated materials.
Agenda status: Final Action (planned)
Implementation of Title IX based on Definition of "Sex" Identified in EO 14168
The Department intends to amend regulations implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) to ensure consistency with Executive Order 14168, Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government (January 20, 2025), including clarifying that implementation of Title IX is to be based on sex, which shall refer exclusively to an individual's immutable biological classification as either male or female.
Agenda status: Final Action (planned)
Other actions in this stage
Rules open for, or headed toward, public comment.
Accreditation Issues
The Department proposes to engage in negotiated rulemaking to address accreditation issues to clarify institutional flexibility to pursue changes of accreditors without prior Department approval and remove other burdensome requirements that erect barriers to entry for new accreditation agencies. On December 26, 2024, the Department issued a Notice of Termination of negotiated rulemaking process for State Authorization, Cash Management, Accreditation and Related Issues closing the Notice of Intent to Commence Negotiated Rulemaking, 88 FR 43069 (July 6, 2023).
Status: Proposed rule published on January 27, 2026
Equity in IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)
The Department intends to amend regulations implementing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act's (IDEA) provisions pertaining to significant disproportionality. Specifically, the Department intends to amend 2016 regulations that established a standard methodology States must use to determine whether significant disproportionality based on race and ethnicity is occurring in the State and set specific programmatic requirements on how states are required to comply with Section 618(d)(2) of the IDEA.
Agenda status: NPRM (planned)
Other actions in this stage
Early-stage actions: reviews and advance notices that come before a formal proposal.
Addressing Title IV Eligibility Issues
The Department proposes to address Title IV eligibility issues to remove requirements that unnecessarily target faith-based or for-profit institutions and interfere with efficient and beneficial mergers, sales, and transfers of institutions of higher education. Such issues to be addressed in the context of institutional eligibility for participation of Federal student financial aid include rules governing change of ownership, cash management, administrative capability standards, program length requirements, and financial responsibility requirements. This rule would also remove ultra vires provisions in the Title IV Revenue and Non-Federal Education Assistance Funds regulations called the 90/10 Rule that give public and nonprofit institutions a competitive advantage and update Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program regulations consistent with the December 2, 2025 opinion published by the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice entitled, "Constitutionality of Race-Based Department of Education Programs," regarding that program.
Agenda status: Notice of Intent to Commence Negotiated Rulemaking (planned)
Documentation of Foreign Source Gifts and Contracts, Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965
The Department intends to propose regulations covering institutions' reporting of statutorily defined gifts, contracts, and/or restricted and conditional gifts or contracts from or with defined foreign sources, pursuant to the requirements of section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA).
Agenda status: Notice of Intent to Commence Negotiated Rulemaking (planned)
Reducing Anti-Competitive Regulatory Barriers
To implement President Trump's Executive Order 14267 on anti-competitive regulations, the Department will engage in negotiated rulemaking to promulgate rules to (1) amend college textbook packaging rules under 34 C.F.R. 668.163(c)(2) to put downward pressure on prices by promoting competition among booksellers; and (2) improve the transferability of college credits.
Agenda status: Notice of Intent to Commence Negotiated Rulemaking (planned)
Other actions in this stage
Actions the agency reports as completed this cycle. The official agenda rule list files these separately from the active pipeline.
One Big Beautiful Bill Act: Pell Grants and Workforce Pell Grants
The Department engaged in negotiated rulemaking, Accountability in Higher Education and Access through Demand-driven Workforce Pell (AHEAD), to propose regulations to implement the changes made to Pell Grants provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill. This proposed rule includes the addition of the workforce Pell Grant program that offers Pell Grants to students for short-term training programs.
Status: Final rule published in the Federal Register on May 19, 2026
Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE)
The Department intends to propose regulations after completing negotiated rulemaking, to implement the changes made to student loans in the One Big Beautiful Bill. This includes phasing out graduate and professional PLUS Loans; eliminating income contingent repayment (ICR), Pay As You Earn (PAYE), setting loan limits for $20,000 for graduate students and $50,000 for professional students and creating a new loan repayment plan known at the Repayment Assistance Plan."
Status: Final rule published in the Federal Register on May 1, 2026
Accountability
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), signed into law by President Trump on July 4, 2025, includes provisions modifying the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, that establish an accountability framework for all postsecondary programs of study that participate in the Direct Loan Program. To implement the required OBBB framework, provide the most consistent and helpful information to students, families, and other stakeholders, and prevent additional costs and administrative burden from competing frameworks for program accountability, the Department seeks to revise the existing Financial Value Transparency/Gainful Employment regulations to align with the OBBB requirements and to provide a simplified transparency and accountability framework.
Status: Final rule published in the Federal Register on July 1, 2026
Other actions in this stage
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Create a free accountCompiled from the 2026 Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda (reginfo.gov), cross-referenced against Federal Register publications. Regulation Roundup tracks all 24 ED actions and refreshes as the agenda changes.