On August 15, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced a new, extensive data collection—the Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement (ACTS)—that would be added to the existing IPEDS reporting. ACTS is the largest expansion of IPEDS reporting in history, adding thousands of new data fields. Institutions are facing significant technical and environmental challenges that hinder their ability to submit accurate and complete data by the original March 18, 2026, deadline.
On March 11, 2026, seventeen state attorneys general sued the U.S. Department of Education to prevent ACTS from being implemented. Shortly afterwards, the National Center for Education Statistics updated the ACTS deadline on the IPEDS website from March 18 to March 31, 2026 as a result of a temporary restraining order. Then, on March 24, another temporary restraining order was issued further extending the reporting deadline to April 6, 2026 only for certain public institutions. On March 31, 2026, an additional temporary restraining order was issued further extending the ACTS reporting deadline only for a small subset of institutions. On April 3, 2026, the judge assigned to the case granted a preliminary injunction blocking data reporting for only public institutions in the 17 plaintiff states while the case is considered.
AACRAO, alongside several higher education associations, has joined an amicus brief in support of the state AGs lawsuit challenging ACTS. Read Melanie Gottlieb, AACRAO Executive Director’s, statement summarizing the changes to institutional reporting requirements here.
ACTS Reporting Deadlines
Please see the table below for the ACTS reporting deadline for your institution:
| ACTS Reporting Deadline | |
| Members of:Association of American Universities (AAU)Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts (AICUM)Connecticut Conference of Independent CollegesMaine Independent College AssociationNorth Carolina Independent Colleges and UniversitiesOregon Alliance of Independent Colleges and UniversitiesPlus Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Middlebury College, Sarah Lawrence College, Swarthmore College, and Vassar College | Preliminary Injunction Issued Blocking Data Collection While Case is Litigated |
| Public institutions in CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, NV, NJ, NY, OR, RI, VT, VA, WA, WI | Preliminary Injunction Issued Blocking Data Collection While Case is Litigated |
| Private institutions in CA, CO, CT*, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, NV, NJ, NY, OR*, RI, VT, VA, WA, WI | March 31, 2026 |
| All other institutions | March 31, 2026 |
Institutions may ask for an ACTS reporting extension until April 8, 2026, if they have completed all screening questions for all seven ACTS years and have uploaded at least three years of data to the IPEDS data collection system. This request is granted on a case-by-case basis and must be made via the IPEDS Help Desk.
*Private institutions in Connecticut who are members of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges and private institutions in Oregon who are members of the Oregon Alliance of Independent Colleges and Universities have until April 24, 2026, to report their data.
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