Category: Firm News
Legal Alert: Department of Education Issues Guidance on Implementation of 2016 Borrower Defense to Repayment Final Regulations
The U.S. Department of Education (“Department”) has issued guidance on the 2016 Borrower Defense to Repayment (“BDR”) final regulations, which took effect following unsuccessful litigation by the Department to delay their implementation. Given changes that may have occurred at institutions between the original implementation date (July 1, 2017) and the […]
Debbie Osgood Presents on the Needs of Transgender Students and Employees at upcoming NACUA CLE Workshop
Debbie Osgood will be speaking on Thursday, April 4th in Seattle, Washington at the 2019 CLE Workshop: The Ever-Evolving Field of Higher Education Discrimination Law: What You Need to Know Now Debbie will be addressing the needs of transgender students […]
The President’s Executive Order on Free Inquiry, Institutional Transparency and Accountability
On March 21, 2019, President Trump signed an Executive Order entitled “Improving Free Inquiry, Transparency, and Accountability at Colleges and Universities.” The Executive Order seeks to promote First Amendment rights, improve transparency relating to financial aid information, and address student loan debt in higher education. Free Inquiry: Specifically, the Executive […]
Liberal Arts Colleges’ Student Admission Files Hacked
On Thursday March 7, the same week that The Wall Street Journal reported on Chinese hackers targeting universities in order to obtain access to classified military technology, Inside Higher Ed reported that applicants at three liberal arts colleges had received anonymous notes offering them the chance to buy their complete […]
Universities Targeted by Chinese Hackers for Military Technology
On Tuesday, March 4, The Wall Street Journal reported that more than two dozen universities in the U.S., Canada and Southeast Asia had been targeted by Chinese hackers. In its report, The Wall Street Journal cited research from iDefense, a cybersecurity intelligence unit of Accenture Security, indicating that the University of […]
New FERPA Guidance on Permitted Disclosures Necessary to Protect Health or Safety
By Sheila Sokolowski and Linh Nguyen The U.S. Department of Education through the Privacy Technical Assistance Center (“PTAC”)—an online resource on data privacy, confidentiality, and security practices for education stakeholders—recently issued a set of frequently asked questions (“FAQs”) on the requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”) […]
President Trump Proposes Fiscal Year 2020 Budget
On Monday afternoon, the Trump Administration released its proposal for the federal budget. Specific to the U.S. Department of Education, the fiscal 2020 budget decreases funding by about $8.5 billion while maintaining level funding for the Office for Civil Rights. Details of the full budget request are available here. In […]
Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place – California’s “Fair Pay to Play” Act
The amateurism rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) – the governing body of intercollegiate athletics – prohibit student-athletes from receiving payments for endorsements or otherwise profiting from the use of their name, image or likeness (“NIL”). Indeed, if an NCAA Division I or II athlete is paid for […]
Illinois Privacy Law Does Not Require Actual Harm
On January 25, 2019, the Illinois Supreme Court held that a person whose rights under the Biometric Information and Privacy Act (“BIPA”) (740 ILCS 14/1) are violated is “aggrieved” and is not required to show that the violation caused actual harm in order to bring an action seeking damages and/or […]
SUPREME COURT SCHEDULED TO REEVALUATE HOW AGENCIES INTERPRET THEIR OWN REGULATIONS WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR TITLE IX (KISOR V. WILKIE)
The Supreme Court’s decision to grant review in Kisor v. Wilkie may have major implications for the Department of Education’s implementation and enforcement of its civil rights regulations. Kisor v. Wilkie seeks to challenge the Court’s long-standing precedent of granting deference to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of their own regulations, commonly […]