Education Department Proposes ACTS Revisions, Opens 60-Day Comment Period

The U.S. Department of Education is proposing changes to the Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS) and is taking public comment through December 8, 2026, under an Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) collection notice published October 9 in the Federal Register (docket ED-2026-SCC-3037).

The notice, which covers the 2026-27 through 2028-29 collection cycles, proposes four changes, all to ACTS: new eligibility criteria for the ACTS components, improvements to the ACTS aggregator tool, removal of certain variables that a disclosure-avoidance review found reduced the supplement's overall utility, and clearer instructions and item definitions. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) attributes the clarifications to feedback from institutions and practitioners and to a Technical Review Panel held in 2026. All other IPEDS survey components are unchanged from the previously approved collection.

For Institutional Research and Effectiveness (IR/IE) offices, the proposal follows the first ACTS collection, which many institutions reported as time-intensive. The eligibility and definitional changes could affect which institutions report and how they prepare admissions data, making the comment window a chance to weigh in before the terms are set.

Comments are due December 8, 2026, and may be submitted through the Regulations.gov comment form for docket ED-2026-SCC-3037.