Massachusetts Federal Court Extends ACTS Survey Deadline for Two Higher-Education Associations

Quick Hits

• A Massachusetts federal court provisionally granted intervention in ongoing litigation challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s ACTS survey, for a limited purpose, to two higher-education associations seeking TROs against the survey deadlines.
• The TRO extends the deadline to complete the ACTS survey to April 14, 2026, for the proposed intervenor associations and their constituent institutions and restrains enforcement of the earlier March 18 and March 31 deadlines against them.
• The court emphasized that it has not yet ruled on full intervention or on preliminary injunctive relief and set an expedited briefing schedule and an April 13, 2026, hearing on those issues.

On March 31, 2026, U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor, IV, in Massachusetts v. U.S. Department of Education, issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) extending the deadline for completion of the ACTS survey for proposed intervenors, the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts (AICUM), and their constituent institutions of higher education, to April 14, 2026.

Background

The underlying lawsuit was filed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and sixteen other states against the U.S. Department of Education, the secretary of education, the Office of Management and Budget, and its director, challenging the approval and implementation of the ACTS survey as unlawful.

The ACTS survey, which institutions of higher education were initially required to complete by March 18, 2026, significantly expands the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data collection. The survey requires institutions to report admissions, aid, and outcomes data disaggregated by race, sex, test scores, GPA, income, and other factors for the current academic year, and, for the first time in IPEDS history, six prior years (2019–20 through 2024–25).

On March 13, 2026, the plaintiff states moved for a TRO. Later that day, the court issued an order extending the ACTS survey deadline to March 25, 2026, to allow for orderly briefing and a hearing. Following additional proceedings, including a March 24, 2026, hearing, the court issued another TRO extending the deadline to April 6, 2026, for the seventeen named state plaintiffs and their “constituent institutions.”

Motions by Higher-Education Associations

On March 19, 2025, the AAU and other national higher-education associations sought leave to file an amicus curiae brief, which the court granted. On March 25, the AAU filed a motion to intervene as a plaintiff and a motion for a TRO. The AAU’s TRO motion asserted, among other things, that ED had extended the ACTS survey deadline for all institutions of higher education to March 31, 2026.

The AICUM filed its own motion to intervene and motion for a TRO on March 30, 2026. Both associations challenge the ACTS survey on grounds similar to those advanced by the state plaintiffs and addressed at the March 24 hearing.

March 31, 2026, Order

To allow for orderly consideration of the associations’ requests and to provide the defendants an opportunity to respond, the court “provisionally” granted the motions to intervene filed by AAU and AICUM, but only “for the limited purpose of considering the proposed plaintiff-intervenors’ motions for a temporary restraining order.” The order expressly states that this is not a ruling on intervention “for all purposes.”

The court issued a TRO that:

• extends the deadline to complete the ACTS survey “for proposed plaintiff-intervenors and their constituent institutions of higher education through April 14, 2026”; and
• restrains the defendants from enforcing either the original March 18, 2026, deadline or the March 31, 2026, extended deadline “against those institutions.”

The court made clear that this TRO is not a grant of preliminary injunctive relief and that such relief will be “subject to future briefing and a hearing.”

Next Steps

Defendants were ordered to respond to the motions to intervene and for a TRO by April 9, 2026. Separately, the court scheduled a hearing on the motions for April 13, 2026.

For now, the March 31 order provides additional, temporary deadline relief from the ACTS survey requirements for the two proposed plaintiff-intervenor associations and their constituent higher-education institutions, while the court considers whether to allow full intervention and whether broader or longer-lasting injunctive relief is warranted.

Higher education institutions may want to stay tuned to the litigation and consider necessary steps to comply with the ACTS survey.

Ogletree Deakins’ Higher Education Practice Group and Workforce Analytics and Compliance Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Compliance, Government Contracting and Reporting, Higher Education, State Developments, and Workforce Analytics and Compliance blogs as additional information becomes available.

This article and more information on how the Trump administration’s actions impact employers can be found on Ogletree Deakins’ Administration Resource Hub.

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