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REGULATORY REFORM TASK FORCE 

STATUS REPORT 

December 2018
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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

MEMORANDUM TO THE SECRETARY 

From: Regulatory Reform Task Force 

Date: December 21, 2018

Re: Regulatory Reform Task Force Status Report 

This memorandum provides a status report pursuant to the President’s Executive Order 13777, 

Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda (the “Order”), to reduce regulatory burdens on the 

American people through regulatory reform. We set forth below the Department of Education’s 

(“Department”) work through the date of this report. 

REQUIREMENTS OF THE ORDER 

You will recall that the Order directs the establishment of a Regulatory Reform Task Force 

(the “RRTF”) to oversee the implementation of the Department’s regulatory reform initiatives. 

Reporting periodically to the Secretary and regularly consulting with agency leadership, the 

RRTF must evaluate existing regulations and guidance and make recommendations to the 

Secretary regarding any repeal, replacement, or modification. 

The Order requires the RRTF to identify regulations that (i) eliminate jobs or inhibit job 

creation; (ii) are outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective; (iii) impose costs that exceed benefits; 

(iv) create a serious inconsistency or otherwise interfere with regulatory reform initiatives and 

policies; (v) are inconsistent with the requirements of section 515 of the Treasury and General 

Government Appropriations Act, 2001 or its guidance; or (vi) derive from or implement 

Executive Orders or other Presidential directives that have been subsequently rescinded or 

substantially modified. 

The Order also directs the RRTF to seek input and other assistance from entities “significantly 

affected” by the agency’s regulations. When implementing the regulatory offsets required by 

Executive Order 13771 (the “two-for-one order”), the Order also requires the Secretary to give 

priority to those regulations that the RRTF has identified as being outdated, unnecessary, or 

ineffective. 

COMPLIANCE WITH THE ORDER 

Since October 2017, the Department has taken the following steps to comply with the Order. 

1. Regulatory Reform Task Force Meetings 
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Composed of career and non-career employees, the RRTF met periodically throughout the year, 

engaged in stakeholder outreach, evaluated public comments, and focused its review on stale,

outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective regulations and guidance. 

2. Stakeholder Outreach by the Department and its Principal Offices 

To comply with the Order’s requirement in section 3(e) to seek input from the public, the 

Department continued to seek comments directly from the general public, with several 

Principal Offices also reaching out to their stakeholders. 

a. Outreach by the Department 

With reference to the general Department-wide outreach effort, the RRTF published a request 

for comments in the Federal Register on June 22, 2017, inviting the public to provide 

comments on identifying regulations and guidance for repeal, replacement, or modification. 

After extending the closing date from August 21 to September 20, 2017, the Department 

received over 16,000 comments from the public. The RRTF and each POC completed their 

review of these comments by June 2018.

b. Outreach by Principal Offices 

In addition to the Department-wide Federal Register notice seeking public comment, several 

Principal Offices have asked for the views of the stakeholders especially relevant to their offices 

in a variety of ways. The method depended on the Principal Office. 

To obtain the views of the postsecondary education community, the Office of Postsecondary 

Education (OPE) conducted hearings at Salt Lake Community College in Sandy, Utah and at 

the Department on September 26, 2017 and October 4, 2017, respectively. For any specific 

regulation relating to the student financial aid programs or other programs authorized under 

Title IV of the HEA that OPE identifies for repeal, replacement, or modification, the HEA 

requires the Department to engage the public through public hearings and negotiated rulemaking 

committees (just as it is doing for its current negotiated rulemaking efforts). The Department 

also held listening sessions at its annual Federal Student Aid conference on regulatory reform 

and other topics in November of 2017. In addition, OPE held three public hearings with regard 

to establishing a negotiated rulemaking committee on accreditation and other issues. Those 

hearings were held in September 2018 at the Department in Washington, DC; in New Orleans, 

Louisiana, and in Sturtevant, Wisconsin. 

Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical, and Adult Education Scott Stump and the Division of 

Academic and Technical Education within the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult 

Education (OCTAE) attended four regional state CTE director meetings, which were hosted by 

Advance CTE, the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), the American 

Association of Community Colleges (AACC), and the National Alliance for Partnerships in 

Equity (NAPE). These meetings took place throughout Fall 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia; Phoenix, 

Arizona; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Baltimore, Maryland. During these meetings, the 

Department solicited feedback on the plan to rescind non-regulatory guidance regarding the Carl 

D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Perkins IV) when the Strengthening 

Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) takes effect on July 1, 
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2019. There was general agreement, amongst both the state directors and the stakeholders with 

whom they must consult, with the Department’s plans to remove outdated guidance to encourage 

innovation. 

For its stakeholder outreach, the leadership of the Office of Elementary and Secondary 

Education (OESE) convened a listening session with the Secretary on October 2, 2017, for 

education policy thought leaders, who individually presented their views on the topic of 

regulatory relief for State educational agencies, local school districts, schools, teachers, and 

administrators. This feedback covered many of OESE’s program offices, with a number of 

comments addressing OESE’s State Assessment regulations, as well as expressing support for 

the existing McKinney-Vento and Impact Aid programs.

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) continues to receive 

input from the public, including at on-site meetings, teleconferences, letters, and at 

conferences. Input on the Department’s regulations and guidance has been received from 

organizations representing parents, disability advocates, civil rights groups, and education 

associations, as well as individuals representing themselves. State Directors of Special Education, 

State Part C Coordinators for Early Intervention, and members of the Council of State 

Administrators for Vocational Rehabilitation use quarterly calls with OSERS as an opportunity to 

continue to provide input on the Part B and C regulations implementing the Individuals with 

Disabilities Education Act, as well as the Vocational Rehabilitation regulations implementing the 

Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

OCR has carefully listened to numerous stakeholders, such as teachers, students, parents, 

representatives of national groups, advocates, and others, on a number of topics, particularly in 

the areas of sexual harassment under Title IX and discrimination in student disciplinary practices 

under Title VI. With respect to Title IX, OCR engaged a host of groups in anticipation of 

issuing its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on November 29, 2018. With respect to Title VI, 

OCR also held stakeholder outreach sessions that culminated in a joint summit with the 

Department of Education and Department of Justice on April 4, 2018. 

3. Regulatory Review 

a. Regulations

OPE initially identified two sets of regulations (Borrower Defense to Repayment/Financial 

Responsibility and Gainful Employment) for review through negotiated rulemaking under the 

Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA). OPE convened negotiated rulemaking 

committees and subcommittees in late 2017 and early 2018. Throughout the spring and 

summer, the Department worked with the White House and other agencies to craft and issue 

NPRMs. The Department received approximately 38,000 public comments on the Borrower 

Defense to Repayment/Financial Responsibility NPRM and about 14,000 comments on the 

Gainful Employment NPRM. The Department is continuing to work on these rules and to 

publish final rules for Gainful Employment and Borrower Defense to Repayment/Financial 

Responsibility. 
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In 2018, the Department identified additional postsecondary regulations for review. These 

include accreditation, postsecondary innovation topics (such as competency-based education, 

distance learning, and State authorization requirements for distance education programs), 

religious freedom issues concerning faith-based institutions, and modifications to the TEACH 

Grant program. The Department held three hearings to obtain public comment: September 6, in 

Washington, D.C.; September 11, in New Orleans, Louisiana; and September 13, in Sturtevant, 

Wisconsin. Negotiated rulemaking will commence with three committee sessions in 2019, all in 

Washington, D.C.: January 14-16; February 19-22; and March 25-28. The Department will then 

publish proposed rules, receive public comments, and publish final regulations. 

In addition, on July 3, 2018, the Department published a final rule (developed by OPE) delaying 

until July 1, 2020, the effective date of selected provisions of the State Authorization of 

Distance Education regulations issued by the Department in 2016. We estimated that this delay 

regulation will result in cost savings of $5.6 million for regulated parties. 

On August 22, 2018, the Department also published a final rule (developed by OESE) 

withdrawing the regulations governing the Migrant Even Start Family Literacy Program; the 

Christa McAuliffe Fellowship Program; and the priority for Empowerment Zone or Enterprise 

Community, as Congress has not authorized or extended these programs. The final rule also 

removed other regulations that have been superseded by the Every Student Succeeds Act 

(ESSA), which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). On 

July 17, 2018, the Department published the withdrawal of the NPRM on the supplement not 

supplant requirement under title I, part A of the ESEA, as amended by ESSA, following OESE’s 

identification of that NPRM for withdrawal. 

On January 12, 2018, the Department published a final rule removing superseded regulations for 

five programs that OSERS identified for removal because they are no longer administered by 

the Department: The Disability and Rehabilitation Research Projects and Centers Program, the 

Research Fellowships program, the Special Projects and Demonstrations for Spinal Cord Injuries 

program, the State Independent Living Services program, and the Centers for Independent 

Living program. In 2014, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act transferred these 

programs to the Department of Health and Human Services, which has adopted regulations for 

them. Further, on July 3, 2018, the Department published a final rule (developed by OSERS) 

postponing by two years the date for States to comply with the Significant Disproportionality

regulations from July 1, 2018, to July 1, 2020. The delay regulation also postponed the date for 

including children ages three through five in the analysis of significant disproportionality, with 

respect to the identification of children as children with disabilities and as children with a 

particular impairment, from July 1, 2020, to July 1, 2022. The Department estimates a cost 

savings of $7.5 million for the postponement of the Significant Disproportionality regulations 

compliance dates. 

On March 5, 2018, the Department published a final rule (developed by OII) rescinding its 

Troops-to-Teachers regulations because that program has been transferred to the Department of 

Defense and is no longer administered or managed by the Department. 

On September 21, 2018, the Department published a final rule (developed by OCTAE) to 

remove outdated, superseded regulations for seven programs in the State Vocational and Applied 
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Technology Education Programs and National Discretionary Programs of Vocational Education. 

These programs are no longer funded by the Department. 

As POCs continue to review their regulations, the Department will note additional deregulatory 

actions in its next Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory & Deregulatory Actions that OMB 

will publish in the spring of 2019. 

b. Regulatory Workgroup 

A workgroup continues to evaluate the Department’s Education Department General 

Administrative Regulations (EDGAR workgroup). Building on the work from last year, this

cross-POC workgroup is now drafting updates to those rules to streamline the Department’s 

grantmaking processes and remove unnecessary burden. The Department plans to incorporate 

those updates into an NPRM for publication in 2019.

c. Unified Agenda 

OMB published the Department’s Unified Agenda of Deregulatory and Regulatory Actions and its 

Regulatory Plan on October 17, 2018. The Agenda and Plan provide detailed information about 

the Department’s deregulatory and regulatory actions for the next 12 months. Published twice a 

year, the Agenda ensures that OMB and the public have accurate, thoughtful, and timely 

information about our regulatory process and priorities. The public can obtain the Department’s 

Plan and Agenda at the following site: https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaMain

d. Policy Guidance 

The RRTF has spent a significant amount of time reviewing policy-oriented guidance 

documents, including Dear Colleague Letters, Questions and Answers or Frequently Asked 

Questions, policy memos, and the like. The following POCs intend to archive or withdraw 

such guidance: 

OPE initially identified 1,171 guidance documents, but has since identified several hundred more, 

for a total of 1,562 guidance documents. Of those, OPE has identified 1,230 guidance documents 

(2,698 pages) that are out-of- date and that it intends to withdraw. This represents a reduction of 

nearly 80%. 

OCTAE identified and withdrew, out of 25 documents, nine out-of-date guidance documents. 

From 228 guidance documents, OESE identified and withdrew 97 stale and unnecessary guidance 

documents. OII identified and withdrew two stale guidance documents for rescission. Out of 169 

documents, OSERS identified and withdrew 72 stale guidance documents.

The Office of the Chief Financial Officer identified and withdrew five out-of-date guidance 

documents.

On July 3, 2018, OCR rescinded six guidance letters addressing the use of race by 

educational institutions. On December 21, 2018, OCR also rescinded certain six guidance 

documents relating to the administration of school discipline. 
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4. Cross-program office regulatory burden-reduction initiatives 

a. Guidance Workgroup 

In December 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and 

Government Reform, requested detailed information from Federal agencies, including the 

Department, regarding their non-regulatory guidance issued since 2008. In March 2018, the 

Committee released its report, “Shining Light on Regulatory Dark Matter,” and identified the 

Department’s submission as one of the “bright spots” among the other agency submissions. 

The Committee noted that the Department was one of two agencies that had the capability to 

respond properly, indicating effective and implemented information management policies. 

In response to a recommendation from the Committee, the guidance working group is 

creating a web portal with a brief explanation and links to each principal operating 

component’s guidance. The workgroup is currently reviewing a beta version of this website

that the Department will finalize by in early 2019. The beta version of this website can be 

accessed at the following link: https://preview.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/types-of-guidancedocuments.html

b. Information Collections Workgroup 

This group identified 21 information collection requests to discontinue and two to modify. These

changes will result in a savings of $11.6 million for the Department. 

NEXT STEPS: CONTINUED IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ORDER 

As next steps, the RRTF will continue to study the feedback received through outreach efforts 

and recommend whether additional regulations and related substantive policy guidance meet the 

Order’s criteria for repeal, replacement, or modification. The Department will also continue its 

internal deliberation of whether our regulations and guidance should be modified or rescinded 

based on policy grounds.