The U.S. Department of Education (Department) recently surprised the higher education community with a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL GEN-23-03) that sets forth new guidance on third-party servicers with whom institutions of...more
On Thursday, the Department of Education announced that, in certain circumstances, it will require leaders of institutions to assume personal liability as a condition of Title IV Federal Student Aid participation....more
On October 4, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) commenced the first of five negotiated rulemaking sessions. The five sessions are focused on the federal student financial aid programs authorized under Title IV of...more
On March 5, 2020, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education issued an announcement, “Guidance for interruptions of study related to Coronavirus (COVID-19),” to address concerns arising with respect...more
On September 23, 2019, the U.S. Department of Education (ED or the Department) published in the Federal Register final regulations on Institutional Accountability, which revise its current regulations on borrower defenses to...more
Under U.S. federal law, known as the Higher Education Act (HEA), eligible U.S. students may receive federal student aid to help pay for education expenses incurred to attend approved higher education institutions, including...more
As we reported, the Department of Education announced earlier this month that it would begin implementing its “borrower defense” final rule which was issued in November 2016 by providing discharges of federal student loans...more
The “borrower defense” final rule (Final Rule) issued by the Dept. of Education in November 2016 took effect at noon Wednesday, after Judge Randolph D. Moss of the D.C. federal district court refused to grant the renewed...more
Earlier this week, Judge Randolph D. Moss of the D.C. federal district court heard oral argument on the renewed motion for a preliminary injunction filed by the California Association of Private Postsecondary Schools (CAPPS)...more
On August 14, 2018, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that seeks to rescind the Obama-era Gainful Employment (GE) regulations applicable to for-profit educational...more
Instructor. Regular. Substantive. Those three words, as defined by the U.S. Department of Education (“ED”) Office of Inspector General (“OIG”), resulted in OIG’s recent recommendation that Western Governors University (“WGU”)...more
On October 24, the U.S. Department of Education (“ED”) published an interim final rule to delay until July 1, 2018 the effective date of selected provisions of what have become known as the borrower defense to repayment...more
The California Association of Private Postsecondary Schools (CAPPS) has filed a complaint in D.C. federal district court against the Dept. of Education and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to overturn the “borrower defense”...more
In this, the first in a series of client alerts that will explain the workings of the new Borrower Defense to Repayment Rule (BDTR), we explore what promises to be a series of rules, procedures and interpretations to be...more
The U.S. Department of Education has issued a final rule that broadly addresses the ability of a student to assert a school's misconduct as a defense to repayment of a federal student loan. The final rule includes a ban on...more
We recently blogged about Public Citizen, Inc.’s petition to the Department of Education requesting the Department to adopt a rule requiring schools to agree, as a condition of receiving Title IV assistance under the Higher...more