July 22, 2026
Today, the U.S. Department of Education’s (the Department’s) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a significant deregulatory action, taking an important step to reduce unnecessary red tape and burdensome administrative requirements for states and schools. The Department’s final rule eliminates the Methods of Administrations program (MOA) from the regulations implementing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI), which has long imposed unnecessary federal requirements on Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.
Established in 1979, the MOA program requires states to conduct burdensome and duplicative compliance reviews to ensure CTE programs adhere to federal civil rights laws. This review requirement is imposed only on CTE programs, despite the lack of recent evidence that CTE programs are more likely to violate civil rights laws than other education programs. These redundant, bureaucratic requirements are unnecessary, and the resources required to comply with them can be used in other ways to better serve students.
State agencies may still conduct these reviews as they see fit, but the Department no longer mandates this extra layer of oversight. The Department continues to enforce federal civil rights laws across the sector and will hold CTE programs, administrators, and recipients accountable for their compliance.