The U.S. Department of Education launched a negotiated-rulemaking effort, dubbed Accreditation, Innovation, and Modernization (AIM), to rewrite how accreditors are recognized and regulated. The AIM committee will negotiate deregulation, data-driven student outcomes, civil‑rights compliance, and integrity safeguards; the department set negotiator nominations due Feb. 27 and scheduled two multi‑day sessions in April and May. The move signals a federal push to shorten accreditation’s path for new entrants and tighten enforcement on transfer-of-credit, misleading claims, and equity-related standards.