Secretary of Education
Executive orders directing the Secretary of Education · 30 in Biden · 181 all terms.
Related departments
Orders
30 shown · Biden
Establishment of the China Censorship Monitor and Action Group
This memorandum establishes the China Censorship Monitor and Action Group, an interagency task force led by the National Security Advisor and National Economic Council Director to monitor and counter PRC censorship or intimidation of U.S. persons exercising free speech. The task force must produce an integrated federal strategy and annual reports on these efforts, with membership spanning 12+ agencies including State, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Commerce, DHS, and intelligence agencies.
Combating Emerging Firearms Threats and Improving School-Based Active-Shooter Drills
This executive order establishes an interagency task force to develop strategies against emerging firearms threats, specifically machinegun conversion devices and 3D printed ghost guns, requiring reports within 90 days. It also directs the Departments of Education and Homeland Security to publish guidance on improving school-based active-shooter drills within 110 days, with attention to trauma reduction and civil rights compliance.
Investing in America and Investing in American Workers
This executive order directs federal agencies to prioritize high labor standards—including prevailing wages, project labor agreements, union neutrality, and workforce development—when awarding federal financial assistance under the Investing in America agenda (infrastructure, CHIPS, and clean energy laws). It establishes an interagency task force to coordinate implementation and requires agencies to embed job quality criteria into grant-making processes.
White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity Through Hispanic-Serving Institutions
This executive order establishes a White House Initiative within the Department of Education and a President's Board of Advisors to strengthen Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) by improving their access to federal resources, promoting best practices, and expanding educational and economic opportunities for Hispanic and Latino students. The Initiative focuses on addressing funding disparities, improving infrastructure, aligning programs with workforce needs, and building partnerships with public and private organizations.
Scaling and Expanding the Use of Registered Apprenticeships in Industries and the Federal Government and Promoting Labor-Management Forums
This executive order establishes a White House interagency working group to expand Registered Apprenticeship programs across federal agencies and their grant/procurement processes, while also revoking a 2017 Trump order to restore Labor-Management Forums for federal employee union collaboration. It requires agencies to review procurement and grants for apprenticeship opportunities, develop workforce plans incorporating apprenticeships, and submit implementation plans for labor-management forums within 180 days.
Continuance of Certain Federal Advisory Committees and Amendments to Other Executive Orders
This executive order extends 37 federal advisory committees until September 30, 2025, delegates presidential FACA functions to agency heads, and amends two prior executive orders—expanding the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander commission's outreach role and increasing the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities membership from 25 to 30 while adding similar liaison functions.
Strengthening Access to Affordable, High-Quality Contraception and Family Planning Services
This executive order directs federal agencies to strengthen access to affordable contraception and family planning services following the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision. It instructs multiple departments to consider actions to improve contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, Medicare, and federal programs for service members, veterans, and federal employees, while also supporting Title X clinics and health centers.
Increasing Access to High-Quality Care and Supporting Caregivers
This executive order directs federal agencies to use existing authorities to expand access to affordable, high-quality child care and long-term care, and to improve wages and working conditions for caregivers. It includes specific actions across HHS, Labor, Education, Veterans Affairs, and other agencies to boost compensation, increase training pathways, support family caregivers, and leverage federal infrastructure and workforce funding for care services. Most provisions are framed as considerations, guidance, or encouragement rather than mandates.
Reducing Gun Violence and Making Our Communities Safer
This executive order directs federal agencies to implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and take additional steps to reduce gun violence, including clarifying firearms dealer licensing requirements, promoting safe storage and red flag laws, improving ballistics data reporting, and developing support programs for gun violence survivors.
Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government
This executive order strengthens and extends the Biden Administration's equity mandate by requiring federal agencies to establish Equity Teams within 30 days, submit annual Equity Action Plans starting September 2023, and embed equity considerations across budgeting, procurement, AI development, and program delivery. It sets a 15% federal procurement goal for small disadvantaged businesses by FY2025, revokes Trump-era Opportunity Zone executive orders, and mandates coordination through a new White House Steering Committee on Equity.
Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy
This executive order launches a whole-of-government initiative to advance U.S. biotechnology and biomanufacturing capabilities across health, climate, energy, agriculture, and national security sectors. It mandates numerous agency reports and plans with specific deadlines, establishes a Data for the Bioeconomy Initiative, creates workforce development programs with equity commitments, streamlines biotechnology regulation, strengthens biosafety and biosecurity protections, and tasks intelligence agencies with assessing foreign threats to the U.S. bioeconomy.
Implementation of the Energy and Infrastructure Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
This executive order establishes a new White House Office on Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation to coordinate implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act's energy and infrastructure provisions. It also restructures interagency coordination by amending previous executive orders to expand the National Climate Task Force's mission, add the new Senior Advisor to multiple interagency bodies, and prioritize clean energy deployment, environmental justice, and domestic manufacturing.
Establishment of the White House Task Force to Address Online Harassment and Abuse
This memorandum establishes a White House Task Force co-chaired by the Gender Policy Council and National Security Council to coordinate federal efforts against technology-facilitated gender-based violence, including online harassment, deepfakes, and doxing targeting women and LGBTQI+ individuals. The Task Force must deliver an Initial Blueprint within 180 days, a 1-Year Report within one year of that blueprint, and annual follow-up reports thereafter.
Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals
This executive order directs federal agencies to advance equality for LGBTQI+ individuals through a comprehensive set of initiatives addressing healthcare access, education, housing, child welfare, and data collection. It establishes specific deadlines for agencies to develop policies, guidance, and reports aimed at combating discrimination, ending conversion therapy, improving federal benefits access, and strengthening supports for LGBTQI+ youth, older adults, and families.
Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery To Rebuild Trust in Government
This executive order directs federal agencies to modernize service delivery and reduce administrative burdens on the public, framing inefficient government processes as a "time tax" on citizens. It mandates specific digital upgrades across agencies—from online passport renewal to streamlined disaster assistance applications—and establishes a framework for designating High Impact Service Providers (HISPs) with ongoing accountability for customer experience improvements.
The National Space Council
This executive order reconstitutes the National Space Council, chaired by the Vice President, with a broad membership of cabinet secretaries and senior officials. It establishes the Council's advisory and coordination functions for national space policy across civil, commercial, and national security sectors, creates a Users' Advisory Group of non-Federal industry representatives, and revokes two Trump-era executive orders on the same body.
White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans
This executive order establishes a White House Initiative within the Department of Education to advance educational equity and economic opportunity for Black Americans through interagency coordination, evidence-based policy, and a Presidential Advisory Commission. It revokes a 2012 Obama-era initiative on the same topic, expanding the scope to explicitly include economic opportunity and workforce development alongside K-12 and higher education.
White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Native Americans and Strengthening Tribal Colleges and Universities
This executive order establishes a White House Initiative within the Department of Education to advance educational equity, excellence, and economic opportunity for Native American students and strengthen Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). It creates a new interagency structure co-chaired by the Secretaries of Education, Interior, and Labor, revokes a 2011 Obama-era order on the same topic, and mandates specific deliverables including memoranda of agreement and annual progress reports.
White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics
This executive order establishes a White House Initiative within the Department of Education and a Presidential Advisory Commission to advance educational equity and economic opportunity for Hispanic and Latino students, families, and communities. It creates a 25-agency interagency working group, requires participating agencies to submit measurable action plans, and sets policy goals spanning early childhood through higher education and workforce development. The order revokes the prior Trump administration's Hispanic Prosperity Initiative (EO 13935).
White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity Through Historically Black Colleges and Universities
This executive order establishes a new White House Initiative within the Department of Education to advance educational equity and economic opportunity for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). It creates a new President's Board of Advisors on HBCUs, mandates annual agency plans from federal agencies on HBCU participation in federal programs, and establishes an interagency working group to coordinate government-wide efforts.
Ensuring a Safe Return to In-Person School for the Nation's Children
This memorandum directs the Secretary of Education to assess available tools—including possible enforcement actions—to ensure state governors and officials do not block local schools from implementing CDC-recommended COVID-19 safety protocols for safe in-person learning. It responds to state policies that the administration views as interfering with school districts' ability to protect students, educators, and staff during the Delta variant surge.
Worker Organizing and Empowerment
This executive order establishes a White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, chaired by the Vice President and comprising 23+ cabinet and agency officials, to identify and recommend federal policies that promote union organizing and collective bargaining. It revokes two Trump-era workforce councils and directs the new task force to submit recommendations within 180 days.
Establishment of the White House Gender Policy Council
This executive order establishes the White House Gender Policy Council within the Executive Office of the President to coordinate federal efforts advancing gender equity and equality across domestic and foreign policy. The Council, led by two presidentially designated Co-Chairs and comprising cabinet members and senior officials from 36 agencies, must develop a government-wide strategy within 200 days and requires agencies to designate senior gender equity coordinators within 30 days. The order also mandates creation of a National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence and terminates a prior administration's working group on women's global development.
Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free From Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, Including Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity
This executive order directs the Department of Education to review and potentially revise Trump-era Title IX regulations that narrowed protections against sex discrimination, explicitly extending protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity. The order requires a 100-day review of agency actions inconsistent with this expanded policy, with particular focus on the May 2020 rule that changed how schools handle sexual harassment allegations.
Restoring Faith in Our Legal Immigration Systems and Strengthening Integration and Inclusion Efforts for New Americans
This executive order directs a comprehensive review of Trump-era immigration policies to remove barriers to legal immigration, naturalization, and public benefits access. It establishes interagency task forces to coordinate integration efforts and mandates specific plans and reports to streamline citizenship processes and reverse restrictive public charge and sponsor liability policies.
Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad
Executive Order 14008 establishes climate change as a central pillar of U.S. foreign policy and national security while creating a sweeping government-wide domestic climate framework. It creates new White House offices and interagency bodies, sets a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, pauses new oil and gas leasing on federal lands pending review, and mandates numerous agency reports and plans within 60-120 days. The order also establishes a Civilian Climate Corps, targets conserving 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030, and creates mechanisms to prioritize environmental justice and economic revitalization of fossil fuel communities.
Ensuring a Data-Driven Response to COVID-19 and Future High-Consequence Public Health Threats
This executive order directs federal agencies to improve data collection, sharing, and publication of COVID-19-related information to support evidence-based pandemic response and build stronger public health infrastructure for future threats. It mandates senior data leads across multiple departments, requires reviews of public health data systems and federal hiring capabilities for data roles, and tasks OMB with issuing guidance on open data and de-identification.
Ensuring an Equitable Pandemic Response and Recovery
This executive order establishes a COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force within HHS to address disproportionate pandemic impacts on communities of color and underserved populations. It directs federal agencies to assess and modify pandemic response plans for equitable resource allocation, strengthen data collection, and conduct targeted outreach for vaccine trust.
Establishing the COVID-19 Pandemic Testing Board and Ensuring a Sustainable Public Health Workforce for COVID-19 and Other Biological Threats
This executive order establishes a COVID-19 Pandemic Testing Board to coordinate federal testing efforts and reduce disparities in access, while also creating plans for a U.S. Public Health Job Corps and a sustainable public health workforce to address the pandemic and future biological threats. It directs multiple agencies to facilitate free testing for uninsured individuals, clarify insurance coverage obligations, and provide technical support to state and local health agencies.
Supporting the Reopening and Continuing Operation of Schools and Early Childhood Education Providers
This executive order directs federal agencies to support safe reopening and continued operation of K-12 schools, early childhood education providers, and higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. It mandates evidence-based guidance, data collection on disparate impacts, equitable distribution of COVID-19 supplies, and development of strategies to address learning loss and educational inequities exacerbated by the pandemic.