The Department of Education released updated guidance on constitutionally protected prayer and religious expression in public schools, expanding the scope of LEA certification obligations beyond prayer-specific provisions and affirmatively protecting visible personal prayer by school employees. The 2026 guidance eliminates the prior structural distinction between prayer and religious expression more broadly—a shift with significant implications for how districts assess their compliance obligations under Section 8524 of the ESEA.

The federal government was again partially shut down after the Senate stripped long-term DHS funding from the consolidated appropriations bill—which includes Education funding—opting for a two-week continuing resolution for DHS amid ongoing uproar over ICE enforcement, and sending the amended bill back to the House with a January 30 deadline looming. The Senate separately passed H.R. 7148, the consolidated appropriations bill, by 71–29 with significant amendments, ending that particular funding lapse.

Sligo Law Group has welcomed two former U.S. Department of Education attorneys as Of Counsel: Denise Morelli, who brings more than 30 years of Title IV enforcement experience including hundreds of program review and audit actions before the Department's Office of Hearings and Appeals, and Marcus Hedrick, who brings more than 15 years advising on IDEA and disability law, most recently as Acting Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Educational Equity. Their addition significantly expands the firm's depth in higher education compliance and disability and civil rights law.

The House passed both the consolidated Education appropriations bill and the DHS funding bill last week, but Senate floor action was upended by mounting outrage over ICE enforcement in Minnesota and nationally—putting the entire funding package on a collision course with a January 30 lapse. The Senate was out of session for the week, leaving the education funding timeline directly dependent on resolution of the DHS funding dispute.

The bipartisan FY2026 appropriations package released January 20 would fund the Department of Education at $79 billion—largely maintaining existing program levels—while the accompanying Explanatory Statement expresses direct congressional concern about ED's use of interagency agreements to transfer statutory responsibilities to agencies without the experience, expertise, or relationships to carry them out. The bill's appropriations language, however, does not include significant new restraints beyond the existing Section 512 fund-transfer prohibition, leaving the administration's IAA strategy legally unresolved.

The Senate Appropriations Committee released conferenced spending bills providing $18.4 billion for Title I, $15.2 billion for IDEA, and a maximum Pell award of $7,395—along with language directly limiting the Department's authority to transfer funds outside of ED and an explanatory statement calling the IAA strategy unprecedented and improper. The package signals meaningful Congressional disapproval of the administration's program transfer approach, even if enforcement mechanisms remain limited.

During the first session week of the new year, Congress introduced a range of education-related legislation while appropriators continued negotiating the remaining funding bills covering Labor, HHS, and Education—with the current CR set to expire and no deal yet in sight. The week also included a House Education and Workforce Committee markup on two bills related to pregnant students' rights.

Congress ended 2025 in a holding pattern, with appropriations unresolved, no legislative response to the Department's interagency agreements, and significant open questions about the year ahead—including what Congress will do, if anything, as the administration continues to restructure ED without statutory authority. Education stakeholders heading into 2026 face compounding uncertainty across funding, program administration, and federal oversight.

The House passed the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act, the Senate passed the Ensuring VetSuccess on Campus Act, and the House Education and Workforce Committee advanced four higher education transparency bills—while the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee marked up eighteen bills addressing student and youth interactions with social media, data, and AI, signaling an intensified congressional push on digital safety governance. Separately, the Department convened negotiated rulemaking on Workforce Pell.

The House passed three bills targeting foreign influence—primarily from China and the Chinese Communist Party—in K–12 public schools, including measures requiring parental notice of foreign entity involvement, prohibiting school contracts with the Chinese government, and cutting federal funding for schools that receive Chinese government support. The week's activity came alongside the Department's rollout of a new HEA Section 117 foreign-gift disclosure portal, signaling accelerating federal scrutiny of foreign influence across both K–12 and higher education.

A new deep-dive collaboration between EducationCounsel and Sligo Law Group analyzes the legal authority underlying the Trump Administration's use of interagency agreements (IAAs) to transfer significant Department of Education programs and funds to other federal agencies. The analysis finds that the IAAs appear to conflict with appropriations statutes expressly prohibiting such transfers and likely exceed the statutory authorities cited to support wide-scale program transfers aimed at dismantling ED without congressional authorization.

With the shutdown resolved, Congress returned to a broad legislative agenda spanning K-12 nutrition, student mental health, loan transparency, civil rights protections, and online safety for minors—including substantive hearings on the future of college, CTE pathways, and services for foster youth. The Energy and Commerce Subcommittee simultaneously advanced a package of eighteen bills targeting student and youth interactions with social media, data, and artificial intelligence.

On November 18, 2025, the Department of Education announced a sweeping plan to redistribute core statutory responsibilities—including grant competitions, technical assistance, and program oversight—to other federal agencies through interagency agreements, despite Congress having consolidated these functions under a single Cabinet department specifically to avoid the fragmentation that existed before 1979. The proposal raises substantial legal concerns, as many of the responsibilities ED intends to transfer are specifically assigned to the Department by statute and cannot be reassigned through executive action alone.

After 44 days, the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history ended when the Senate passed H.R. 5371 by 60–40 and the House approved it 229–209—with provisions restoring back pay to affected employees, reversing RIFs initiated during the shutdown, and pausing further reductions through January 30. The President signed the bill into law that evening.

The federal government has filed appeals of two preliminary injunctions blocking enforcement of the July 2025 PRWORA reinterpretation—one in the First Circuit covering 20 plaintiff states and D.C., and one in the Ninth Circuit covering Head Start programs nationwide. Both injunctions remain in place while the appeals are pending, meaning current enforcement restrictions continue for affected states and Head Start grantees.

A final PSLF regulation published October 31, 2025 adds exclusions from "qualified employer" status for organizations the Secretary determines have a "substantial illegal purpose"—with a definition broad enough to encompass work related to immigration services, gender-affirming care, student protests, and DEI initiatives. The rule gives the Secretary discretionary authority to disqualify employers with narrow appeal rights and a 10-year bar on reapplication, immediately ceasing loan payment credits for employees of disqualified organizations, and is already subject to two separate legal challenges before it takes effect July 1, 2026.

On Day 41 of the shutdown, a bipartisan group of Senators announced a deal to fund the government through January 30—while Head Start preschools began to close after November 1 federal grant payments failed to arrive and 1 in 8 Americans faced disruption from the ongoing SNAP litigation. The funding deal still faced procedural hurdles in both chambers and did not include the ACA premium tax credit extension Democrats had sought.

Thirty-three days into the shutdown, Congress continued to fail on continuing resolution votes while Head Start preschools began to close after November 1 federal grant payments did not arrive—and courts stepped in to force continued SNAP disbursements to recipients in several states. Both chambers introduced bills to address the downstream harms of the shutdown, though none advanced.

The government shutdown continued into its fourth week, with furloughed and excepted employees missing their first complete paychecks and the Senate taking its 11th and 12th failed procedural votes on the GOP-backed continuing resolution. The week also brought the withdrawal of Kevin O'Farrell's nomination to lead the Department's Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, following upheaval in that office and a job promotion in Florida.

With the government shutdown entering its third week—at 19 days, the third-longest in U.S. history—the Senate continued to fail on procedural votes to advance a continuing resolution as the federal judiciary announced its funding would be exhausted by October 20. The longest shutdown on record (35 days, 2018–19) remained ahead as negotiations stalled.