Month: March 2026
Department of Education Updates 90/10 Guidance
Vanessa Agudelo, Kate Lee Carey and Rebecca Flake
On March 10, 2026, the Department of Education (ED) quietly updated its 90/10 Questions and Answers guidance that complements the 90/10 regulations at 34 CFR § 668.28. This rule mandates that proprietary institutions participating in the Federal Student Aid programs (FSA or Title IV) must generate at least 10% of their annual revenues from nonfederal student funding sources. The updated guidance, which crosses multiple Q&A entries, was not accompanied by any formal announcement, press release, or Electronic Announcement from ED. The changes generally reduce compliance burdens on proprietary institutions by narrowing the scope of prior guidance and rescinding language that ED now views as inconsistent with the regulatory text. The revisions touch on several topics, including institutional responsibility for identifying federal education assistance funds, the definition of “related” entities for purposes of grants and scholarships, and other aspects of the 90/10 calculation.
ACTS and IPEDS: Navigating the Federal Push for Admissions Transparency and the Looming Deadline for Data Submission
The federal government, in response to a presidential memoranda, “Ensuring Transparency in Higher Education Admissions,” and a corresponding directive from Education Secretary Linda McMahon, dated August 7, 2025, has added a new IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) reporting requirement, the Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS). This data must also be reported to the new ACTS Aggregator Tool, which will provide a college admission comparison interface for families.