By Katherine Demedis

The loss of institutional accreditation is often a death knell for Title IV eligible institutions because most institutions enroll a substantial number of students who depend on Title IV funds to finance their educations. With its recent revisions to 34 C.F.R. § 600.11 published on November 1, 2019, the U.S. Department of Education may have provided a life line.  The Department’s new rules allow institutions that are or have been subject to an adverse action by their current accrediting agency to change accreditors or maintain accreditation by more than one institutional accreditor.

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By Dan Brozovic

On Friday, November 1, 2019, the U.S. Department of Education officially released its long-awaited final rule on accreditation and state authorization issues, the culmination of a multi-year negotiated rulemaking process.  Most of the wide-ranging regulatory changes in this package—including the accreditation provisions summarized in our prior post—will take effect on July 1, 2020.

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By Katherine Demedis

On November 1, 2019, the U.S. Department of Education published final regulations that, among other things, revised its process for recognizing accrediting agencies, making it easier for new accrediting agencies to become recognized, thereby potentially increasing competition among agencies.

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By Sean Beller

While the higher education space continues on an unpredictable path as administration turnover and court rulings have created an ever-changing landscape on key topics like gainful employment, borrower defense, and state authorization, False Claims Act (“FCA”) litigation has remained a consistent concern for institutions and the entities with whom they contract. Read More

By Dan Brozovic

On Monday, July 1, 2019, the U.S. Department of Education (“ED”) formally published a final rule rescinding the Obama-era regulations known as the Gainful Employment rule.  Institutions have the option to implement these changes immediately—including cessation of all GE disclosure obligations and direct-delivery requirements—provided they follow ED’s instructions for doing so, which are described below. 

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