Education Department repeals 2024 Title IX rule and restores prior text

The Department of Education published a final rule on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, repealing its 2024 Title IX sexual-harassment and gender-identity regulations and restoring the regulatory text that existed before them. The rule, titled “Recodification of Title IX Rules,” appears in the Federal Register, Vol. 91, No. 187, at pages 61308–61322 (FR Doc. 2026–19929), and takes effect the same day. It was signed on September 25, 2026 by Secretary of Education Linda E. McMahon.

The 2024 Rule — Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance, 89 FR 33474 (April 29, 2024) — was declared effective August 1, 2024, and was challenged in ten lawsuits almost immediately. Eight courts preliminarily enjoined it between June 13 and August 22, 2024, covering 26 states and several individual schools and districts; because seven injunctions preceded the effective date, the rule was never enforceable in 22 states and operated in only four — Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina — for a few weeks.

Two final judgments then vacated it in full: Tennessee v. Cardona (E.D. Ky., January 9, 2025) and Carroll Independent School District v. Department of Education (N.D. Tex., February 19, 2025). The Department announced on January 31, 2025 that it would enforce the pre-2024 regulations, and says it has not enforced the 2024 Rule for more than a year and a half.

A rule the courts had already annulled

The Department frames the action as housekeeping rather than policy. “This final action does not reopen debate on the 2020 Rule or the 2024 Rule,” it states, adding that the rule “reflects no essential legal or policy determination by the Department, other than the fact that the 2024 Rule is not in force.” Its stated purpose is to align the Code of Federal Regulations with the rules actually being enforced, since the CFR still published the vacated text.

What changes in 34 CFR part 106

The rule revises 34 CFR part 106 to read as it appeared on April 28, 2024, the day before the 2024 Rule was promulgated, with four exceptions:

• One sentence is omitted from 34 CFR 106.45(b)(6)(i), the cross-examination provision vacated by Victim Rights Law Center v. Cardona.
• Appendix A to part 106 is not reinstated; it was removed by a separate rule, 91 FR 46285 (July 23, 2026).
• 34 CFR 106.3(c)–(d), the policy-review and record-keeping requirements, are not reinstated.
• 34 CFR 106.41(d), the one- or three-year athletics adjustment period, is not reinstated.

The sections restored include 34 CFR 106.1, 106.2, 106.6, 106.8, 106.10, 106.11, 106.15, 106.16, 106.17, 106.18, 106.21, 106.30, 106.31, 106.40, 106.44, 106.45, 106.46, 106.47, 106.48, 106.51, 106.57, 106.60, 106.71 and 106.81.

Issued without notice and comment

The Department issued the rule without prior public notice and comment, invoking the Administrative Procedure Act exemption at 5 U.S.C. 553(a)(2) for matters relating to “public property, loans, grants, benefits, or contracts.” In the alternative it cited good cause under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B) and 553(d)(3), arguing that comment would be “unnecessary” because the rule only removes vacated text, and that delaying the effective date would prolong confusion. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs determined it is a “significant regulatory action” under E.O. 12866 but not a “major rule” under the Congressional Review Act.

What it means for recipients

The Department says the rule imposes no new obligations and no costs: “All Federal funding recipients remain bound by the Title IX regulations that are already in force.” It expects the change to be deregulatory under E.O. 14192 and says the update will end “over-compliance” by schools trying to satisfy both the vacated 2024 Rule and the regulations actually in force. The rule carries RIN 1870–AA26; the contact is Maria Litsakis, Acting Director of the Program Legal Group in the Office for Civil Rights.

For every school, college and university receiving federal funds, the practical effect is that the harassment grievance procedures, definitions and Title IX Coordinator duties codified in the CFR now match the pre-2024 framework the Department has been enforcing since early 2025 — ending a year and a half in which the published rule and the operative rule diverged.

Source: Federal Register, Vol. 91, No. 187, September 29, 2026, Rules and Regulations, pp. 61308–61322 (official reference: FR Doc. 2026–19929).