On June 16, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) announced four new interagency agreements, including new partnerships with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). Secretary of Education Linda McMahon describes the HHS partnership as a way the Department “will align federal services with the goal of
The intersection of federal privacy law, parental rights, and student gender identity has become one of the most actively litigated areas of education law. For example, on January 28, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) found that the California Department of Education (CDE) violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)—a federal statute granting parents the right to access their children’s education records—by maintaining policies that pressure school officials to conceal students’ gender transitions from their parents.
Fostering Diverse Schools Demonstration Grants
In fall 2025, the U.S. Department of Education’s (Department) Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development sent a Notice of Non-Continuation of Grant Award for the Fostering Diverse Schools Demonstration Grants (FDS) program, which launched in 2023. This amounts to over $25 million in discontinued funds for the recipients, including public school districts in Miami and New York City.
For more than three decades, the federal government maintained a policy restricting immigration enforcement operations at or near schools and other “sensitive locations.” That longstanding protection ended abruptly in January 2025, when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rescinded its sensitive locations policy and replaced it with guidance leaving enforcement decisions to the discretion of individual Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The policy shift has led to increased immigration enforcement activity at or near schools nationwide, prompting legal challenges from school districts concerned about disruptions to their educational mission.
On April 23, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order #14280 (EO 14280), “Reinstating Commonsense School Discipline Policies.” This order directs the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Attorney General to issue new guidance on school discipline and move away from the disparate impact framework that the Obama and Biden administrations had applied.
In recent years, a handful of high-profile legal challenges have emerged in response to state laws requiring the display of religious texts in public school classrooms, particularly in conservative states. Both Texas and Louisiana have enacted legislation mandating that public schools prominently display the Ten Commandments, prompting lawsuits from parents and advocacy groups who argue that such measures violate the First Amendment. While courts have expressed skepticism toward state-sponsored religious displays in schools, ongoing litigation means the future of these laws—and the separation of church and state in public education—remains uncertain.
Numerous school districts across the United States still operate under desegregation orders originally implemented in the decades following the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which held that racially segregated school districts were unconstitutional. 347 U.S. 483 (1954). Achieving unitary status marks the point at which a formerly racially segregated school system is deemed to have dismantled de jure segregation and, therefore, may be released from federal court supervision.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has ceased investigating claims based solely on alleged disparate impact discrimination. Traditionally, disparate impact discrimination claims could be proven when a seemingly neutral employment policy or practice disproportionately affected members of a protected class—such as race, gender, or age—even if there was no evidence of an intent to discriminate.
On January 7, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education (the “Department”) approved Iowa’s “Returning Education to the States Waiver,” making Iowa the first state to receive such approval. This waiver frees Iowa from several requirements related to the Every Student Succeeds Act (“ESSA”) and thereby give it greater flexibility in how it uses certain federal education funds.
The legal landscape for transgender rights in the United States continues to evolve rapidly, with the U.S. Supreme Court (the “Court”) and federal courts issuing pivotal decisions. The past year has seen high-profile cases on access to gender-affirming care, participation in school sports, restroom policies, and the intersection of First Amendment rights with issues of gender identity. These cases have resulted in a patchwork of rulings and left many legal questions unresolved, with significant implications for students, educators, and families nationwide.