Federal Court Vacates the U.S. Department of Education’s Nondiscrimination Guidance

What began with the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE)[1] February 2025 Dear Colleague Letter has now unraveled into injunctions, stays, and ultimately a ruling that voided the guidance and its certification requirements altogether. The outcome leaves schools, state education agencies, and policymakers in limbo as they wait to see whether the DOE will appeal or restart the process under the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act.

Background: DOE’s Dear Colleague Letter

On February 14, 2025, the DOE’s Acting Secretary for Civil Rights issued a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) to “clarify and reaffirm the nondiscrimination obligations of schools and other entities that receive federal financial assistance from the United States Department of Education.” 

On March 1, according to its press release, the DOE released Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) in response to the promise in the DCL that “additional guidance would be forthcoming, and these FAQs anticipate and answer questions that may arise.”  Then, on April 3, the DOE sent state education agencies (SEAs) a requirement that all local education agencies under a SEA’s authority certify their compliance with the DCL in order to continue to receive federal financial assistance.  This requirement was issued to SEAs in a document entitled “Reminder of Legal Obligations Undertaken in Exchange for Receiving Federal Financial Assistance and Request for Certification under Title VI and SFFA v. Harvard”  and SEAs were given ten days to collect and return those signed certifications. See  April 3, 2025 DOE Press Release. 

Initial Legal Challenges

Lawsuits against the DOE followed, and on April 24, in National Education Association v. United States Department of Education, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire enjoined the DOE from enforcing and/or implementing the DCL, the FAQs and the certification requirement against the plaintiffs and their members.  As a result of the Court’s ruling the DOE currently notes at the top of each document that “it will not take any enforcement action, or otherwise implement the [DCL, FAQs, or certification requirement] until further notice.” 

That same day, in a separate case, American Federation of Teachers v. Department of Education, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claim that the DOE violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) in issuing the DCL.  As a result, the Court stayed the DCL while litigation continued. 

DCL is Struck Down

As of August 13, 2025, enforcement of the DCL had been stayed and enjoined, and enforcement of the certification requirement had been enjoined twice over, creating uncertainty.

On August 14, 2025, the Maryland District Court in the American Federation of Teachers case found that the plaintiffs had successfully proven that the DCL and certification requirement were not “promulgated in accordance with the procedural requirements of the APA, and that both actions run afoul of important constitutional rights. Both Challenged actions accordingly must be vacated.”  In striking down the DCL and certification requirements, the Court further noted that “the administration is entitled to express its viewpoints and to promulgate policies aligned with those viewpoints. But it must do so within the procedural bounds Congress has outlined. And it may not do so at the expense of constitutional rights.” 

What Comes Next?

The DCL and certification requirement are effectively void, null, and nonexistent; the DOE cannot enforce, implement, or otherwise use the DCL or certification requirement.  It remains to be seen how the DOE will respond to this ruling: they may appeal the Court’s decision, or they may heed the Court’s advice that “if the government seeks to reinstate similar policies, it must go through the full processes required by the APA for the first time.”  For now, schools and state agencies are left waiting for the next move. Stay tuned!

[1] While ED is the preferred acronym, for the purposes of the August 14, 2025 Memorandum Opinion, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland defined the U.S. Department of Education as DOE.

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