In March 2026, the NAEd filed a response to the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education’s Request for Information regarding the proposed definitions of “professional student” and “graduate student” in connection with the implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA). Specifically, the NAEd explained how ED’s proposed operationalization of “professional” to excluded most graduate programs in education, school-based professions, and education-adjacent professions: (1) lacks coherence with the criteria of the proposed definition of “professional student;” (2) foreseeably harms the K-12 educator workforce supply; and (3) negatively impacts graduate access and career pathways, particularly for first-generation students and students from low-income households.
