This week, more than 2,000 leaders gathered in Washington for JFF's Horizons Summit, which has, in recent years, become one of the nation's most consequential convenings for policymakers, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, and impact investors. When grantmakers like Steve Taylor, Katy Knight, and Allison Scott (the latter are rumored to be launching a podcast, btw) are in a room with builders like Michael Ellison, Bridget Burns, and Michael D. Smith, you know something is happening.

But here's what's interesting: Horizons didn’t become a big deal by changing its focus. The world changed around it.

The field has come to understand something JFF has argued since long before the first Horizons in 2018: translating education into economic outcomes depends on a series of inflection points across a person's life. Third grade reading, eighth grade algebra, and rigorous high school coursework shape trajectories every bit as much as the effectiveness of college coursework or training programs in allied health and aviation. And, crucially, the "in between"—how people actually move from one system to the next—matters just as much.

JFF's seminal Big Blur report made this case in 2021, calling for erasing the boundaries between high school, college, and career. Five years on, it still reads like a roadmap. Just last week, JFF won a $40 million Labor Department grant to expand registered apprenticeships in AI, semiconductor, and nuclear infrastructure—nearly a decade after launching its apprenticeship center. 

None of this happened by accident. 

JFF CEO Maria Flynn spent 16 years at the Department of Labor, where she managed a $12 billion training budget, before joining JFF, and she has stayed focused on this work through every hype cycle. The success of Horizons, and the continued relevance of JFF, is a testament to Maria's steadfast leadership and to the dream team of education and workforce experts assembled around her.

The JFF team continues to find new ways to tell stories and highlight what works—profiling powerful worker stories and uplifting industries that offer pathways to good jobs for people from all educational backgrounds. Their partnership with the Global Electronics Association is a masterclass in both.

Today, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it will scrap a decades-old regulation known as “duration of status,” which allowed international students to stay in the U.S. until they finished their program of study.

Under a final rule, the duration of nonimmigrant academic and exchange visas (F-1 and J-1 classifications) will be capped at four years unless an exception is granted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The final rule will also limit international students’ ability to change their major and transfer between institutions once in the U.S.

Notably: While the rule does not eliminate Optional Practical Training (OPT)—a temporary work authorization commonly used by international students to extend their time in the U.S. while on an F-1 visa—students whose post-completion OPT extends beyond their fixed admission date will need to file an extension of stay request with USCIS. Additionally, the post-completion grace period to leave the country will be cut in half, from 60 to 30 days.

According to DHS, the fixed period for these classifications is intended to curb “rampant” foreign student visa abuse and prevent international students from overstaying in the U.S. without oversight from immigration officials.

Efforts to roll back duration of status are years in the making. The first Trump administration proposed a rule to end duration of status; however, the proposed rule was withdrawn after former President Biden took office. The rule was proposed again last summer, and it received more than 22,000 comments during a truncated public comment period. 

Commenters noted that a large share of students do not finish a degree program in four years, and that Ph.D. programs can rarely be completed in a four-year time frame. They also raised concerns that this could discourage international students from attending American institutions, which would have both major financial implications for those schools and broader economic consequences.

NAFSA, the international educators association, argued in their comment letter that there is no empirical evidence drawn between duration of status and increased fraud or national security risk, and that DHS was justifying the rule on speculation that ending duration of status might result in uncovering high rates of noncompliance. NAFSA also pointed out that international students are among the most surveilled immigrant categories in the U.S. due to tracking requirements via the Student Exchange and Visitor Information System (SEVIS), and suggested that DHS should utilize the systems and authority it already has to focus enforcement efforts on “bad actors.”

Administrative burden also tops the list of concerns about the new rule. USCIS has a backlog of nearly 12 million cases as of Q4 2025, according to the American Immigration Council; as a result, international students are expected to face significant delays should they need to file an extension for their program of study. Extensions, too, are discretionary, and it is unclear how many extensions will be authorized by USCIS.

The final rule will be officially published in the Federal Register within the next couple of days, per DHS’ announcement. After it is published, it will go into effect after 60 days. Current international students on F-1 and J-1 visas will be automatically transitioned to the new system, and their authorization to stay in the U.S. will be limited to a maximum of four years from the rule’s effective date.

In W/A Notes, we’ve been spotlighting the state leaders behind some of the most impactful reforms in public education today. So far: Eric Mackey in Alabama, Jenna Conway in Virginia, Carey Wright in Maryland, and Cade Brumley in Louisiana.

We're continuing to expand the series. State leaders interested in participating can reach out to W/A Notes Associate Editor Julia Pasette-Seamon at [email protected].

For the first time, this year's Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS) Curriculum, Research, and Instruction Conference included a dedicated strand on special education. The timing matters: even as the federal government reconsolidates special education programming and budgets tighten across the board, districts remain responsible for the 8.2 million (and counting) students who qualify under IDEA.

Two panels showed how district leaders are responding:

Special education is where federal retrenchment will hit districts first and hardest—and it's the issue we're watching most closely heading into the school year. 

The districts to learn from won't be the ones defending the status quo; they'll be the ones building coherence, integrating special education, MTSS, and multilingual services into one system rather than running them in silos. As Nérée put it, the illusion of inclusion is no longer enough.

Today, 43 million Americans have earned some college credit, but no credential—often adults over the age of 25, for whom the conventional college experience was not designed. As demographic trends depress the number of traditional-age college students and institutions see meaningful enrollment declines, states face increasing pressure to reengage this population to promote institutional stability and shore up long-term economic competitiveness.

That’s the argument ReUp Education makes in its latest report, the Adult Learner Engagement Index. Released last week, the index scores all 50 states and Washington, D.C. on nine strategies for reengaging this population, organized around three core components: Student Incentive Support, Institutional Innovation, and Outreach and Engagement.

A new Progressive Policy Institute report from Rachel Canter and Bruno Manno examines how six leading career education programs have made work-based learning a core part of the high school experience, helping students build professional skills alongside academic knowledge. The report argues that with the right partnerships and infrastructure, work-based learning can better prepare students for college and careers while making high school more relevant and engaging.

Check out W/A Jobs, which features 3,569 career opportunities from 320 organizations across the education industry. A few roles that caught our eye over the past week: