Note: Our biweekly E-Updates provide briefings on action across the Administration, Congress, and U.S. Courts. EducationCounsel’s resources specifically related to the Administration’s executive actions are available by clicking here.

The information included in this publication occurred primarily during the time period of September 4, 2026, through September 17, 2026. 

Highlights:

• On September 8, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which administers the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), released its 2025 results. In the U.S., reading scores for 15 year-olds (those students who are administered the PISA) fell by 14 points since 2022, while math and science scores remained flat.
• On September 10, Brian Stone, Acting Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), announced a new vision and proposed changes for the agency in a statement titled, “NSF leadership in a new golden age of science.”
• On September 16, the House passed on a bipartisan voice vote, H.R.7890, the Science of Reading Act of 2026, which revises the Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) grant program to prioritize literacy instruction that is aligned to the science of reading.
   

Administration

U.S. Department of Education:

U.S. Sees Significant Decline in 2025 PISA Results in Reading and Flat Scores in Math and Science: On September 8, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which administers the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), released its 2025 results, including for the U.S. According to the OECD, “PISA 2025 recorded the lowest OECD-average performance observed so far in science, reading and mathematics. On average across 23 OECD countries, reading has declined after peaking around 2012, while science has declined more gradually over the past decade, and mathematics has fallen especially sharply after 2018.” Specific to the U.S., reading scores for 15 year-olds (those students who are administered the PISA) fell by 14 points since 2022, which was the same decline as the average across other OECD countries. For the U.S., this is among the lowest-ever observed results in reading. Additionally, the gap between the U.S.’ highest- and lowest-performing groups of students on reading was larger than that in most of the countries who took PISA. The U.S. ranked 13th overall in reading among 90 participating education systems. In math and science, U.S. scores did not change from 2022, but the U.S. fell by 2 points in the comparable rankings to 27th for math, while gaining 2 points to rank 13th for science. Additionally, the U.S. average math score hit an all-time historic low, with roughly 35.2% of American 15-year-olds failing to reach basic proficiency in math.
 
In response, Ed Week reported that U.S. Department of Education (USED) Secretary Linda McMahon used the scores to call for increased flexibility for states and more options for school choice saying, “In order to truly reform our education system, we cannot continue to box children in with one-size-fits-all mandates.” Additionally, House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R-MI) released a statement expressing, “Today’s results should be a wake-up call. American students are capable of competing with anyone in the world, but our education system is failing to give them the knowledge and skills they need to succeed.”
 
USED Publishes a Learning Agenda Playbook for States: On September 9, USED announced the release of the Learning Agenda Playbook, a new set of resources developed by the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), in collaboration with the National Comprehensive Center, to support state educational agencies (SEAs) in using evidence to inform decisions and strategic planning. USED describes a learning agenda as “a strategic, multi-year plan that guides SEAs to identify their most pressing challenges, ask the right questions, build the evidence to answer them, and invest state resources where they will have the greatest impact.” Eight SEAs helped develop and pilot the playbook: Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin.
 
American Bar Association Eliminates its DEI Standard Ahead of Upcoming National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) Review: On September 8, the American Bar Association’s (ABA) accreditation council voted 10-6 to repeal its requirement that ABA-accredited law schools “demonstrate…a commitment to diversity and inclusion.” The ABA had previously suspended any enforcement of the standard, but its continued existence was one of the reasons cited in a recent USED staff report recommending that the agency should deny the ABA’s pending application to renew its accreditation recognition. Additionally, the repeal comes ahead of NACIQI’s review of ABA’s application during the week of September 20. NACIQI – which is a Federal Advisory Committee to USED – will make a recommendation on federal recognition, after which USED will make a final determination. Loss of USED recognition carries the consequence that ABA accreditation of a law school would no longer grant eligibility to disburse federal student aid funds such as student loans. However, fewer than 10 law schools rely exclusively on ABA accreditation for such eligibility. All other ABA-accredited law schools are eligible to disburse student loans because of their institutional accreditation, which is not at issue here. (See our 9/3/26 Alert for more information.)
 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):

HHS Awards $225 Million to Improve Head Start Nutrition, Facilities, and Services: On September 8, HHS, through its Administration for Children and Families (ACF), announced more than $225 million in supplemental awards for Head Start programs to improve nutrition services, facilities, and one-time operational needs. The funding includes $89 million for nutrition, over $88 million for facility improvements and updating projects, and more than $47 million to support needs such as transportation, technology, playgrounds, security, and staff training. This announcement comes amid a proposed overhaul to the Head Start Performance Standards, that would remove or reduce federal requirements related to comprehensive services, health and safety, staffing, transportation, and program operations (see our 8/20/26 Alert and Deep Dive for more information and analysis of the proposal).

National Science Foundation (NSF):

National Science Foundation (NSF) Acting Director Stone announces new vision and changes for the agency, including a portfolio-based approach and a new Office of Metascience: On September 10, Brian Stone, Acting Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), released a statement titled, “NSF leadership in a new golden age of science.” The statement begins with a reaffirmation of NSF's purpose to “keep American discovery at the frontier,” before noting, “That mission has not changed. The science and technology ecosystem around it has.” Stone then discusses the ways in which science and those in the field have shifted, particularly with the increase of philanthropies and private sector players, as well as AI, affecting how research is organized. 
 
For this reason, Acting Director Stone announced that NSF is “embracing a portfolio approach,” in order to “enable ambitious, multidisciplinary inquiry at the scientific frontier.” NSF is also creating a new Office of Metascience, which will “rigorously assess the effectiveness of new initiatives, scaling what works and retiring what does not.” He states that these initiatives are in line with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director Michael Kratsios' Science: A New Golden Age and the Fiscal Year 2028 OMB-OSTP R&D Budget Priorities Memorandum.
 
In a more detailed letter outlining the agency’s planned changes, Stone outlines how the agency “will combine its merit-based approach with an enhanced deliberateness to its portfolio-based grant-making along two dimensions: how the foundation supports its research and related activities, and how it supports different forms of scientific inquiry.” Specifically, Stone states, “First, funding opportunities are being consolidated, simplified, and purpose-built to more intentionally advance a specific aspect of NSF's mission…Second,…NSF will intentionally match the mechanism of support to the nature of the work, considering its research field and modality, its stage, and its risk profile, while making full use of existing authorities and partnerships.” Regarding changes to funding mechanisms, Stone says, “The NSF merit review process remains the gold standard of grantmaking, but other models exist that may be better suited to identify particular types of meritorious research activities, such as projects that span disciplinary boundaries. NSF will experiment with various proposal review mechanisms, such as providing "Golden Tickets" that empower individual reviewers to champion exceptional proposals that may not survive panel consensus; employing distributed review to reduce administrative burden and speed time to decision; and developing new measures to identify and support novel research.” Specific to changes related to Institutional Models, Stone states, “Universities and investigator-led laboratories remain indispensable to the American [Science & Technology (S&T)] ecosystem, but some scientific goals require new forms of institutions that support a mix of full-time interdisciplinary teams, engineering capacity, local and active management, or sustained coordination around a specific technological bottleneck.”
 
More specifically, the new Office of Metascience will develop and rigorously evaluate new approaches to funding, merit review, program management, and the adoption of emerging tools. Stone states, “The Office of Metascience will work across directorates to run rigorous experiments that advance directorate goals and inform consequential design choices. OMS' experiments will test questions whose findings can inform broader NSF practices and priorities.”
 
In the letter, Stone also speaks to how NSF intends to lead in accelerating AI-enabled scientific discovery. NSF will “make AI a broadly available instrument of discovery, connecting researchers to the AI models, compute, datasets, software expertise, cloud labs, and infrastructure needed to apply these capabilities across every domain of the scientific enterprise.” Stone then goes on to highlight NSF’s role in Genesis Mission – a national effort to harness AI for scientific discovery and apply it to the most pressing national S&T challenges – as well as recent NSF investments in AI-accelerated discovery. Stone also outlines in the letter how NSF will invest in exceptional American talent by identifying exceptional students and early-career talent, supporting hands-on technical training, and cross-sector pathways. Finally, Stone announced that NSF is establishing new Frontier Initiatives, which will be charged with “organizing thesis-driven efforts around major scientific opportunities that can only be reached through cooperation across disciplines and directorates.”  The inaugural Frontier Initiatives will focus on: (1) Future of Intelligence; (2) Frontier of Quantum Phenomena; (3) Advanced Materials and Matter; and (4) Foundations of Biological Design.
 
Importantly, NSF will be also releasing a series of Dear Colleague Letters, funding opportunities, and other announcements over the coming weeks and months, to advance this vision for the agency.
 
In response, House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) released a statement questioning Acting Director Brian Stone’s and OSTP Director Michael Kratsios’ authority to enact these changes without congressional input or authorization. Ranking Member Lofgren also condemned the Trump Administration’s attacks on the scientific community and called for NSF to stop these current actions and reevaluate its values.

Congress:

House:

House passes bipartisan legislation to strengthen literacy: On September 16, the House passed on a bipartisan voice vote, H.R.7890, the Science of Reading Act of 2026, which revises the Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) grant program to prioritize literacy instruction that is aligned to the science of reading. Specifically, the bill excludes certain instructional approaches from comprehensive literacy instruction, to prioritize funds to promote the use of evidence-based literacy instruction and supports aligned to the science of reading, among other provisions. A companion – but not identical – bill, S. 4689, READ Act, which was introduced by Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-LA), along with Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Jim Banks (R-IN) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO), passed that committee on a bipartisan 20 to 2 vote on July 30, but has not yet been considered by the full Senate.
 
House Passes Early Educator Tax Deduction Sending to President to Sign: On September 16, the House passed by a vote of 262 to 159, H.R. 5334, the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, which also included the Supporting Early-Childhood Educators’ Deductions Act. The bipartisan SEED Act amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend the existing educator expense deduction to eligible early childhood educators, allowing them to deduct unreimbursed classroom expenses, such as books, classroom supplies, learning tools, and other materials they purchase for the children in their care. Under current law, K-12 teachers can claim this deduction, but pre-K and early childhood educators are excluded. The bills was signed into law by the President on September 18.
 
Key House Education and Workforce Committee Democrat introduces Transforming Education for the Future Act: On September 17, Representative Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), who is reportedly (Note: Subscription required) exploring a challenge to Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA) to be the lead Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee in the 120th Congress, introduced a comprehensive bill laying out her priorities for legislation to modernize the public K-12 education system. According to Representative Bonamici, the bill, which is titled the Transforming Education for the Future Act, would emphasize a well-rounded education for all students, support educators and learning, and address socioeconomic barriers to learning. Specifically, the bill calls for tripling funding for Title I; fully funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); establishing free, universal preschool for all three- and four-year-old children; repealing the federal school voucher program; promoting hands-on project-based learning by expanding access to career and technical education, arts, civics, humanities, and more; strengthening the educator pipeline through investments in educator pay; funding high-quality education research and promoting transformational, evidence-based practices; restoring funding and staff to USED; and enacting policies to address discrimination and bias in K-12 schools, uphold civil rights, and address racial segregation. A summary of the bill is here, which incorporates a series of Democratic proposed bills. While the bill is unlikely to advance in the remaining days of the 119th Congress, the marker bill outlines several Democratic education priorities going into the next Congress.
 
House Energy and Commerce Committee Advances Legislation Related to the Adoption of AI and Efforts to Close the Digital Divide: On September 16, the House Energy and Commerce advanced a series of bills out of Committee to the House floor, including bills related to the adoption of AI and closing the digital divide. Specifically, the following bills were considered (among others):

• H.R. 10152, the Open-Source AI Leadership Act, passed by a vote of 26 to 21, directs the Secretary of Commerce to support the adoption and use of American open artificial intelligence models. The bill is sponsored by Representative Gabe Evans (R-CO) and has no cosponsors.
• H.R. 7294, the AI for Secure Networks Act, passed unanimously by a vote of 37 to 0, requires the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to study and report to Congress on the impact of AI technology on the security of telecommunications networks. The bill is sponsored by Representatives Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and August Pfluger (R-TX). 
• H.R. 2805, the PLAN for Broadband Act, passed unanimously by a vote of 35 to 0, directs the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information to develop a National Strategy to Close the Digital Divide within one year of enactment of the bill. The bill is sponsored by House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R-MI) and has bipartisan support. 

The bills will now move to the full House, but it remains unclear if they will receive consideration before the end of this Congress.
 
House Appropriations Subcommittee holds hearing on the Economy Act and the Use of Interagency Agreements (IAAs): On September 15, the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee held a hearing on the Economy Act, the long-standing authority that allows federal agencies to obtain goods and services from other federal agencies on a reimbursable basis. The Subcommittee heard from two witnesses: Shirley Jones, Managing Associate General Counsel at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), and Dominick Fiorentino, Analyst in Government Organization and Management at the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
 
As background, the Trump Administration has cited its authority under the Economy Act for the ongoing use of IAAs to transfer certain functions and funding from USED to other federal agencies. To date, the Administration has put into place fourteen IAAs, transferring functions from USED to other agencies including the U.S Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Justice, and State.
 
Subcommittee Chair Dave Joyce (R-OH), in his opening remarks, emphasized that the hearing was intended to help Congress understand both the history and modern use of the Economy Act. He described the law as providing "powerful flexibility" that allows agencies to leverage the expertise of other agencies, "potentially saving taxpayer money and leading to better policy outcomes." 
Subcommittee Ranking Member Steny Hoyer (D-MD), in his opening remarks, pointed to the use of IAAs and argued that, “The Economy Act does not authorize such transfers or functions. Only transfer of funds under very limited specific circumstances, which have not been met in this case. It's clear that the Economy Act is being misused and misapplied.”
 
The witnesses from the GAO and CRS provided historical and legal context on the Economy Act and discussed the conditions under which agencies may rely on Economy Act agreements. Mr. Fiorentino from CRS, explained that the Economy Act serves as a government-wide authority for interagency transactions when more specific statutory authorities are unavailable. Ms. Jones, from GAO, discussed the practical implementation of these agreements and the importance of ensuring that agencies properly document determinations that interagency arrangements are in the government’s best interest and provide value to taxpayers. In response to a question from Representative Sanford Bishop (D-GA) about the legality of the IAAs, Ms. Jones said, “I can say that both GAO and the Department of Justice have said that the Economy Act cannot be used to transfer an agency's core administrative functions.” Throughout the hearing, both witnesses also highlighted the lack of transparency and limited oversight of such agreements, according to CQ (Note: Subscription required). Representative Mark Pocan (D-WI) emphasized this point asking, “Basically, this is about as non-transparent as anything, right?...Because you can't tell me the amount of money, who's doing it, the last fiscal year, the current number of contracts that are out there, right? Am I correct? All of these, you don't have any idea.”
 
Generally, Republican members defended the broad use of the Economy Act, with Representative Ashley Hinson (R-IA), arguing that it was a “tool that increases government efficiency and saves taxpayer money,” and also highlighting its use by administrations of both parties over the years. However, Representative Hinson did go on to express that “strong congressional oversight [is] very important in the process,” according to CQ. Democratic members, pointing to the IAAs, the President’s White House ballroom project, and other examples, argued that the Administration was violating and abusing the Act. 

U.S. Courts:

Federal Courts Rule Against the Administration Regarding Adding New Conditions to Existing Grants: Two different federal courts recently concluded that the Administration could not add new conditions on existing federal grants. These are the latest legal developments arising from the Trump Administration’s approach to terminating or discontinuing grants awarded by the Biden Administration and enforcing its preferred legal interpretations about the scope of federal civil rights laws. 

• On 8/31/26, a federal district court dismissed the Administration’s lawsuit challenging California’s state policy permitting transgender girls to participate in girls’ school sports. The Administration had argued that California’s policy violated Title IX, threatening to withhold federal education funding to the state unless the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation adopted participation policies based on “biological sex.” (See our 7/14/26 Alert for more information about the lawsuit.) The court concluded that the federal government had not adequately notified California that its funding was conditioned on adopting the Administration’s interpretation of Title IX and could not retroactively do so. (In so doing, the court acknowledged that the U.S. Supreme Court has only decided that states may adopt this interpretation—not that they must. The court thus also did not reach the question of whether the Administration’s preferred interpretation of Title IX is correct or not.) 
• On 8/25/26, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a decision upholding most of a preliminary injunction blocking the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Transportation (DOT) from enforcing an array of new conditions the agencies imposed on previously awarded federal grants to more than 30 local governments and public agencies. The appeals court held that HUD and DOT had exceeded their statutory authority under the Administrative Procedures Act in imposing most of these conditions, emphasizing that the authority to attach conditions to federal funding rests principally with Congress and must be grounded in statutory authority. Note that although this case is not about education grants, the court’s decision will likely inform similar challenges brought by grant recipients against any agency, including USED, that seeks to impose new conditions on existing grants.

 
U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Announces Final Challenges to In-State Tuition for Undocumented Students: On September 10, DOJ announced that it has filed lawsuits against Hawaii, Washington, D.C., Arkansas, and Utah challenging their laws providing in-state tuition and financial assistance to eligible undocumented students. DOJ continues to argue that these policies violate a federal law by providing educational benefits to undocumented students residing in the state that are not available to U.S. citizens residing out of the state. This brings the total number of such challenges to 25, and DOJ stated that it has filed suit against all of the states with laws it views as being preempted.
 
Relatedly, a federal judge issued a permanent injunction on September 9 striking down Kansas’s law. (Although the Kansas Attorney General declined to defend the state’s law, the Kansas Governor and a nonprofit organization sought to intervene in the lawsuit; the court denied their motions to intervene as being futile given the court’s ruling that federal law preempts the Kansas law.) 
 
Federal Court Blocks U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Rule to Limit International Student Visas: On September 14, a federal judge granted a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking a DHS rule that would have limited international students’ F-1 student visas and J-1 exchange visitor visas to no more than four years. Because many advanced degree programs (e.g., Ph.D. programs) require more time to complete, students would be required to seek a federal extension after four years to continue their studies. Prior to the rule, international students generally received visas for the duration of their course of study. (See our 7/23/26 Alert for more information.) The vast majority of the roughly 22,000 public comments raised concerns about the rule, including the likely negative effect it would have on international student enrollment, especially in graduate programs. 
 
The injunction postpones the rule’s September 15 effective date until the lawsuit is resolved. The court concluded that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that DHS violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to adequately assess the rule’s costs, consider alternatives, and meaningfully respond to public comments. According to the court, “the government’s proffered rationales for the rule are exceptionally weak, and the connection between the rule and the problems it purports to address is exceptionally attenuated.” The court also concluded that it has the authority to grant nationwide relief, rather than limit its injunction just to the plaintiffs who brought the case, as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled courts must do in other contexts.
 
Lawsuits Challenge “Public Charge” Rule: Two federal lawsuits were filed on September 14, one by a coalition of states and one by a coalition of cities and counties, to challenge a new DHS rule, which took effect on September 18, providing broader discretion for immigration officers to determine whether applicants for lawful permanent residence are likely to become dependent on certain government benefits in the future, which would make them a “public charge.” The lawsuits argue that the rule could create a chilling effect for immigrant families, including those with U.S. citizen children, from accessing services they may be eligible for—including early learning, health care, nutrition, and housing assistance—out of concern that doing so could jeopardize their immigration status. (See our 7/23/26 Alert for more information).
 
Upcoming Events (Congress & Administration):

• On September 23 and 24, the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) will hold a quarterly meeting. During the meeting, the Committee will conduct a review of applications for renewal of recognition submitted by six accrediting agencies, including the American Bar Association, Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. The Committee will also consider a compliance report submitted by one accrediting agency. More information is here.
• On September 24 at 10:00 a.m., the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a markup S. 4428, the "No Aid for Ghost Students Act of 2026," to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require the use of an identity fraud detection system in reviewing Free Applications for Federal Student Aid, and other nominations. The markup will be held in 430 Dirksen Senate Office Building and livestreamed here. 

 
Publications (Congress & Administration):

• On September 9, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report titled, “K-12 Education: Facility Issues Led About One in Five Districts to Cancel School in 2024-25, Affecting 2 Million Students.” Among the findings in the report are that, in the 2024 - 2025 school year, an estimated 47% of school districts had chronic facility issues, and that facility issues led to school cancellations for 2 million students and a loss of about 3.5 million days of learning.

 
Publications (Outside Organizations):

• On September 7, Gallup released polling results titled, “Satisfaction With K-12 Education Hits New Low.” Among the findings of the poll, include that 32% of Americans are satisfied with the quality of U.S. K-12 education, that 44% of Americans believe schools are excellent or good at preparing students to adapt to new technologies, and that 66% of K-12 parents are satisfied with their child’s education.
• On September 10, the Brookings Institution released a report titled, “A year later, what teens tell us about school cellphone bans.” Among the findings in the report include that teens reported phone use at school increased in the 2025 - 2026 school year despite nearly all schools having some kind of cellphone ban in place, that these increases were smallest in schools with the strictest policies, and that even in schools with strict policies, most teens reported no impact of cellphone bans on several well-being indicators like stress and happiness. 
• On September 15, First Five Years Fund released polling results titled, “2026 North Carolina Poll: Voters Across Party Lines Say Child Care Is an Affordability and Workforce Issue.” Among the findings of the poll, which was conducted by UpONE Insights, include that 78% of North Carolina voters said the ability to afford and find quality child care is a crisis or major problem, that 8 in 10 voters say the cost of child care is part of the nation’s broader affordability crisis, and that 62% of voters oppose state budget cuts that result in families losing child care assistance.