On November 1, 2019, the Department of Education will publish a final rule amending the regulations governing the recognition of accrediting agencies, certain student assistance general provisions, and institutional eligibility in the Federal Register.
Section 410 of the General Education Provisions Act of the Higher Education Act (HEA) provides the Secretary with authority to make, promulgate, issue, rescind, and amend rules and regulations governing the manner of operations of, and governing the applicable programs administered by, the Department. Furthermore, under section 414 of the Department of Education Organization Act, the Secretary is authorized to prescribe such rules and regulations as the Secretary determines necessary or appropriate to administer and manage the functions of the Secretary or the Department. These authorities, together with the provisions in the HEA, permit the Secretary to disclose information about title IV, HEA programs to students, prospective students, and their families, the public, taxpayers, the Government, and institutions. Further, Section 431 of the Department of Education Organization Act provides authority to the Secretary, in relevant part, to inform the public about federally supported education programs and collect data and information on applicable programs for the purpose of obtaining objective measurements of the effectiveness of such programs in achieving their intended purposes.
Section 482(c) of the HEA requires that we publish regulations affecting programs under title IV of the HEA in final form by November 1, prior to the start of the award year (July 1) to which they apply. However, that section also permits the Secretary to designate any regulation as one that an entity subject to the regulations may choose to implement earlier and the conditions for early implementation.
The Secretary is exercising her authority under section 482(c) of the HEA to designate the following new regulations at title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations for early implementation beginning on November 1, 2019 at the discretion of each institution, or each agency, as appropriate: Section 600.2, Section 600.9, Section 668.43, and Section 668.50.
The new regulations may be found at the following link in the Federal Register (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/11/01/2019-23129/student-assistance-general-provisions-the-secretarys-recognition-of-accrediting-agencies-the)