The White House finished reviewing the §25F rules on September 29. Publication is the only step left.

The White House has finished reviewing the §25F regulations. On September 29, 2026, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) marked its review of both rules concluded, according to the review records on reginfo.gov: RIN 1545-BS17, the temporary regulations filed as an interim final rule, and RIN 1545-BR97, the proposed regulations. Both carry the same conclusion code, Consistent with Change, OIRA's notation that the agency changed the rule during review before OIRA signed off. Neither rule has been published. As of September 30, neither appears in the Federal Register or on its public inspection list, where documents are posted at least a day before they publish.

This is the step we have been watching for. Treasury sent both rules to OIRA on September 10, as we reported then, and OIRA is the last stop before publication. With review closed, timing is back in Treasury's hands: the rule is signed and sent to the Office of the Federal Register, which schedules it. There is no fixed interval between the two. Treasury has said it expected the proposed regulations by the end of September, so the calendar is tight either way. What changed during review is not public. The conclusion record says only that something did.

Why the two labels still matter. BS17 is the half that opens the program. It covers how a state makes its election, how it submits its list of approved Scholarship Granting Organizations this fall, and what contributions an SGO must begin tracking on January 1, 2027. As an interim final rule, it binds the day it publishes, and comments come afterward. BR97, the fuller rulebook on enforcement, recordkeeping, and information reporting, is a proposed rule, so a formal comment period opens when it publishes. The meeting log on reginfo.gov still lists BS17 at the interim final rule stage and BR97 at the proposed rule stage, so nothing we can see suggests the instruments changed.

Who got a word in before review closed. In the last week of review, OIRA logged nine meetings across the two rules, requested by six outside parties. On September 25: a coalition listed as "Disability and special education organizations," which filed two documents with OIRA, a set of comments on Treasury's request for comment and a December 2025 comment letter to Treasury; the National Association of Education Foundations, which represents foundations that raise money for public school districts; and Christian Matozzo, the attorney whose practice includes forming SGOs, whose meeting we wrote about last week. On September 28: AASA, The School Superintendents Association. On September 29: the NAACP Legal Defense Fund on both rules, and the Advancement Project on the proposed rule. The review was marked concluded the same day those last two meetings were scheduled. The log marks the September 25 meetings completed and still lists the later ones as scheduled; attendee lists posted for the September 25 meetings show Treasury and OMB staff joining by phone.

Read the meeting list for what it is. It shows who asked to be heard, not what they asked for or whether any of it landed. Only the disability coalition's meeting has documents attached, and a request for a meeting is not a position on the final text. What the list does show is who is organized around the program: public school groups and civil rights organizations made five of the six requests, the same pattern we saw when thirteen public school organizations wrote Treasury in July about how the 90 percent spending test is measured.

For governors still deciding, this is the document they have been waiting for. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill has said she will evaluate the program once the federal rules are out, and Michigan has been waiting on Treasury too, as we covered when Secretary McMahon pressed Gov. Whitmer in August. Publication gives those offices something concrete to decide on. See where every state stands on the states page.

For organizations planning to run an SGO, the practical point is timing. Once BS17 publishes, the state election and list mechanics are binding immediately, and states that have opted in can move quickly on their lists before contributions start on January 1. Formation work that does not depend on the rule text, such as the 501(c)(3), state registration, and board and conflict-of-interest policies, can be finished now. Our free SGO Builder walks through each step, and we will publish a plain-English read of both rules the day they appear.

Update, October 1, 2026: both rules went on public inspection at the Federal Register on October 1 for publication October 2. Here is our plain-English read.