— First up: The Office for Civil Rights next week will hold public hearings on making changes to the Title IX regulations governing sexual misconduct at schools and colleges, finalized by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. On the campaign trail, President Joe Biden promised to put a "quick end" to the DeVos policy , which Democrats and some victims' advocacy groups argue create weaker protections for survivors of sexual assault. — Also on the agenda: issues related to the federal civil rights of transgender students in schools, amid a spate of state bills restricting transgender women and girls' ability to play scholastic sports on women's teams. Department officials said they're seeking input on policies related to Title IX's prohibition on "discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in educational environments." — Later this month, Education Department officials will hold hearings on an ambitious slate of about a dozen federal higher education policies that the Biden administration plans to tackle, among them: — Higher education accountability proposals: Much of Biden's higher-ed agenda is focused on restoring Obama-era rules aimed at for-profit colleges that were scaled back or eliminated during the Trump administration, such as "gainful employment" and "borrower defense." But the Biden administration is also signaling it wants to go further — for example, by tightening the procedures by which how for-profit colleges can convert to nonprofit entities, writing new rules about how the Education Department signs off on when colleges are eligible for federal aid and changing how regulators evaluate whether a college poses a risk to students and taxpayers. — Student loan changes: Some of the proposals will bolster "targeted loan cancellation" programs that already exist for certain populations: federal student loan borrowers who work in public service jobs; borrowers with severe disabilities; borrowers whose education is interrupted by the sudden closure of their college; and borrowers who have not finished repaying their loans after decades of making payments. The Biden administration is also looking at restoring an Obama-era protections that prohibit colleges from requiring students to give up their right to sue their college, whether directly or through a class-action lawsuit. — A nebulous college equity agenda: The Biden administration said it also plans to examine ways to promote college completion and address racial and gender inequities in the nation's higher education system. The department also wants feedback on regulatory changes to address "gaps in postsecondary outcomes such as retention, completion, loan repayment, and student loan default by race, ethnicity, gender, and other key student characteristics." — Implementing new laws: The Education Department is set to write regulations to carry out the expansion of Pell Grants to cover incarcerated students, which Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed into law in December. The department is also planning new rules governing a path for would-be students without a high school diploma or GED to receiving federal financial aid for college.. Congress cut that program, known as "ability to benefit," in 2012 but partially restored it in 2015. And the department has indicated it will soon write tighter rules on for-profit colleges, which Congress slipped into Biden's Covid relief package earlier this year. Under the American Rescue Plan, though, the department is prohibited from beginning to implement the expanded restrictions on for-profit colleges' federal funding — known as the 90/10 rule — until Oct. 1. — What's not yet clear: The Education Department has already announced that it plans to convene multiple negotiated-rulemaking committees to begin hammering out the text of its proposed rules as soon as this summer. But a key issue that remains unresolved is how the administration will prioritize what to work on first. It's likely that the department will group the rules into several regulatory packages . But some of the biggest and most controversial topics will likely have to be broken off and considered alone. "Gainful employment" and "borrower defense,",for instance, have each spanned hundreds of pages. — A matter of timing: For most higher education rules, the Education Department has to follow a "master calendar" provision of federal law that requires the department to finalize a regulation by Nov. 1 in order for it to take effect the following July 1. In practice, that could push the effective date of many of the Biden administration's higher education regulatory agenda items well into 2023, 2024 or beyond. | 
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