By Sean Robins, NACAC’s director of advocacy

Welcome to this issue of the Advocacy Update on NACAC’s Admitted blog. With the holiday season upon us, I would like to wish you Happy Holidays. As the year comes to a close, this is a time for reflection, anticipation, and planning — and, I hope, a chance to disconnect and spend time with family and friends. I also hope you are able to find moments to rest and recharge as we look ahead to a busy 2026.

This past week brought meaningful opportunities for advocacy in the face of ongoing and, at times, intensifying challenges that continue to complicate pathways to postsecondary education and the work of the professionals who support students as they navigate the next chapter in their stories. The updates below highlight key developments shaping the federal education landscape and NACAC’s continued efforts to advance access, equity, and stability for students and institutions alike.

Policy & Legislative Updates 

Recent court decisions and administrative actions continue to shape the federal education landscape, underscoring both the importance of accountability and the instability facing students, institutions, and the agencies meant to serve them. A federal judge recently rejected the Education Department’s request to delay implementation of the Sweet v. McMahon borrower defense settlement, reaffirming that borrowers are entitled to timely relief under the 2022 agreement. With nearly 200,000 post-class applicants still awaiting decisions, the court ordered the Education Department to meet the Jan. 28, 2026 deadline for resolving most remaining cases or approve them automatically, emphasizing the real financial and emotional harm caused by prolonged uncertainty.

At the same time, federal courts have stepped in to curb other administration actions affecting the department’s capacity. A separate ruling ordered the reversal of hundreds of shutdown-era layoffs across several agencies, including roughly 150 staff in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. The judge found the layoffs violated congressional spending law and stressed that administrative inconvenience does not outweigh statutory requirements or the harm inflicted on workers and the public they serve. These rulings come as lawmakers and advocates continue to warn that the administration’s use of interagency agreements to shift education programs out of the Education Department would erode expertise, add bureaucracy, and weaken federal support for students in ways Congress did not authorize.

Programmatic uncertainty is also evident in federal grantmaking. After months of terminations, appeals, and litigation tied to allegations that prior awards reflected Biden-era diversity, equity, and inclusion priorities, the Education Department announced more than $208 million in new mental health grants. However, the new awards are narrowly focused on expanding the pipeline of school psychologists and exclude universities and diversity-centered initiatives, leaving gaps in broader mental health supports and continued uncertainty for many schools and communities. The department has also announced a $15 million grant competition to support statewide “Talent Marketplaces” that document skills, credentials, and work histories, reflecting growing interest in learning and employment records even as questions remain about funding sources and long-term implementation.

Congress, meanwhile, is advancing legislation aimed at college affordability and transparency. The House education committee has moved bipartisan bills that would require a universal net price calculator, expand program-level data on the College Scorecard, and standardize financial aid offer letters by 2029. While these efforts are framed as rebuilding public trust, institutions remain concerned about implementation burden and the Education Department’s capacity to carry out new mandates amid staffing disruptions and program transfers. A recent analysis from New America raises concerns that the House’s College Financial Aid Clarity Act falls short of delivering true price transparency for students and families. While the bill sets some content requirements for financial aid offers, it stops short of requiring a fully standardized, comparable format — allowing institutions to use different layouts, terminology, and loan presentations. Advocates warn this approach could perpetuate confusion, obscure true net price, and make oversight difficult, undermining the goal of helping students make clear, informed decisions about college affordability.

On the student aid front, federal negotiators have reached consensus on Workforce Pell regulations, clearing the way for Pell Grants to cover certain short-term workforce programs as early as July 1, 2026. The proposal includes detailed guardrails around program quality, outcomes, and earnings, signaling a broader shift toward program-level accountability. Attention is now turning to the next phase of rulemaking, where the department has indicated it will revisit earnings-based metrics across sectors, including gainful employment and a new “Do No Harm” standard. At the same time, graduate education is preparing for major changes as new federal loan limits and the elimination of Grad PLUS loans take effect next summer, raising concerns about enrollment shifts, increased reliance on private lending, and added pressure on institutions already navigating financial and demographic challenges.

Federal civil rights laws are increasingly being used by the administration to challenge — rather than advance — equity-focused education policies. The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Minneapolis Public Schools, challenging provisions in a teachers’ union contract that support the recruitment and retention of educators of color. The Trump administration argues these measures violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a position that has raised significant concern among educators and advocates who view the case as an effort to weaponize civil rights statutes against the very communities those laws were intended to protect.

In higher education, institutions are navigating similar pressures in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action. Many highly selective colleges have turned to economic diversity strategies — including expanded need-based aid, tuition-free policies, and broader recruitment — to preserve access for low-income students. While early data show increases in Pell enrollment at elite institutions, those gains have not consistently translated into racial diversity, and the Trump administration has signaled that even socioeconomic approaches may face heightened scrutiny as potential racial proxies.

Immigration policy developments are also raising alarms across the education community. The administration has expanded travel restrictions to 39 countries, including Nigeria, one of the largest sources of international students to the United States, with new limits taking effect Jan. 1, 2026. In parallel, a coalition of 20 states has filed a third lawsuit challenging the administration’s $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, arguing it exceeds executive authority and threatens staffing pipelines for colleges, schools, and healthcare systems.

Against this backdrop, new data and research continue to highlight both opportunities and challenges in access and affordability. Common App data through Dec. 1 show strong growth in applications from low-income, first-generation, Black or African American, multiracial, rural, and Southwest-based students, even as international applications — particularly from Asia and Africa — decline. Additionally, a new Brookings analysis also pushes back on claims that college no longer pays off, finding that lifetime earnings premiums for bachelor’s degree holders remain substantial and that inflation-adjusted tuition and net costs have been largely flat since the Great Recession.

NACAC Advocacy 

This week, NACAC took action on multiple federal policy issues that directly affect students, counselors, and institutions. NACAC joined a coalition of higher education and data experts urging the U.S. Department of Education to pause and reconsider its proposed Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS) to IPEDS. While NACAC supports meaningful transparency in college admissions, the coalition raised serious concerns that the current proposal relies on unclear definitions, an accelerated timeline, and insufficient technical support—conditions that could result in inconsistent reporting and misleading comparisons across institutions. The coalition also emphasized that ACTS data cannot determine whether race is a factor in admission decisions and, without additional context and clearer guidance, risks confusing rather than informing students, families, policymakers, and the public.

NACAC also endorsed bipartisan legislation to strengthen the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. The PSLF Payment Completion Fairness Act would address a technical gap that has denied loan forgiveness to public servants who completed 120 qualifying payments but retired or changed jobs before their applications were processed. With ongoing backlogs and delays, NACAC supports this commonsense fix to ensure borrowers who meet the program’s requirements receive the relief they earned and to reinforce PSLF’s role in supporting the public service workforce.

In addition, NACAC called on Congress to preserve the integrity of federal education programs by keeping them within the U.S. Department of Education. NACAC urged support for the Murray/Baldwin amendment to the Labor–HHS–Education minibus, which would block the transfer of education programs to other federal agencies through interagency agreements. Such transfers risk disrupting complex programs that depend on specialized expertise, established systems, and close coordination with states, institutions, and students. As the Senate considers the appropriations package, NACAC is encouraging members to share their perspectives with senators and underscore the importance of maintaining congressional intent and ensuring education programs remain housed within the department best equipped to administer them effectively.

Ways You Can Take Action 

We are continuously updating our Take Action page with opportunities to make your voice heard. If you have not already, I encourage you to advocate on the urgent issues below. You can also view all active advocacy campaigns in the yellow column of the Take Action page. 

• Tell Your Senators: Keep Education Programs at the Department of Education
• Tell Congress: Protect FSEOG and Work-Study Funding
• Tell Congress: Save TRIO and Support College Access
• Tell Congress: Prioritize Visa Appointments for International Students and Scholars 
• Urge Congress to Protect Postsecondary Pathways 
• Tell Congress: International Students are Essential to America’s Safety, Economy, and Global Strength
• Tell Congress to Not Abandon Our National Commitment to Education
• Urge Congress to Protect Disabled Students 
• Don’t Flunk the Future Advocacy Toolkit 

As we close out the year, the policy developments outlined in this update reflect both the complexity of the current moment and the continued importance of steady, values-driven advocacy. While the challenges facing postsecondary education are real — from legal uncertainty and administrative strain to shifting federal priorities — so too is the collective commitment of NACAC members to ensuring students have clear, supported pathways forward. As we head into the holiday season and prepare for the work ahead in 2026, thank you for the time, care, and professionalism you bring to students, institutions, and this community every day.

As educator and civil rights leader Howard Thurman once wrote, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it — because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

We look forward to continuing this work together in the year ahead.