{"id":499,"date":"2026-01-23T10:09:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T14:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/updateeducation\/?p=499"},"modified":"2026-01-23T10:09:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T14:09:27","slug":"department-of-education-narrows-ppa-owner-signature-enforcement-but-leaves-core-statutory-issue-unresolved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/updateeducation\/2026\/01\/23\/department-of-education-narrows-ppa-owner-signature-enforcement-but-leaves-core-statutory-issue-unresolved\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Education Narrows PPA Owner-Signature Enforcement but Leaves Core Statutory Issue Unresolved"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On January 16, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education issued an Electronic Announcement, \u201cProgram Participation Agreement Signature Requirements\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/fsapartners.ed.gov\/knowledge-center\/library\/electronic-announcements\/2026-01-16\/program-participation-agreement-signature-requirements\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GEN-26-04<\/a>), addressing the general circumstances under which an owner-entity of a Title IV-eligible institution may be required to sign a program participation agreement (PPA) under Section 498 of the Higher Education Act (HEA), codified at 20 U.S.C. \u00a7 1099c. The announcement was issued in connection with the Department\u2019s settlement of litigation in\u00a0<em>Hannibal-LaGrange University v. U.S. Department of Education<\/em>, 2:25-cv-00042 (E.D. Mo. 2025), which challenged the legality of the Department\u2019s 2023 amendment to 34 C.F.R. \u00a7 668.14(a)(3)(ii).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read the full <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/alerts\/department_education_narrows_ppa_owner_signature_enforcement_leaves_core_statutory_issue_0126.html\">Alert<\/a><\/em> on the Duane Morris LLP website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On January 16, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education issued an Electronic Announcement, \u201cProgram Participation Agreement Signature Requirements\u201d (GEN-26-04), addressing the general circumstances under which an owner-entity of a Title IV-eligible institution may be required to sign a program participation agreement (PPA) under Section 498 of the Higher Education Act (HEA), codified at 20 U.S.C. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/updateeducation\/2026\/01\/23\/department-of-education-narrows-ppa-owner-signature-enforcement-but-leaves-core-statutory-issue-unresolved\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Department of Education Narrows PPA Owner-Signature Enforcement but Leaves Core Statutory Issue Unresolved&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":376,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,13],"ppma_author":[197],"class_list":["post-499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-anthony-j-guida-jr","tag-department-of-education"],"authors":[{"term_id":197,"user_id":376,"is_guest":0,"slug":"tguida","display_name":"Anthony J. Guida Jr.","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/updateeducation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2019\/06\/guidatony-125x150.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/updateeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/updateeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/updateeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/updateeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/updateeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/updateeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/updateeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/updateeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/updateeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/updateeducation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}