What happened
On September 23, 2026, Judge James Wesley Hendrix of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas entered an order and final judgment in Texas v. Kennedy (No. 5:24-cv-225-H), the multistate challenge to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 2024 rule implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act at 45 CFR part 84. The judgment was entered on a joint motion of the plaintiff states and the federal defendants.
The order vacates six provisions: the definition of "most integrated setting" in 84.10, the final sentence of 84.22(b), 84.43(d), 84.68(d), 84.76 in its entirety, and the final sentence of 84.93(b). The remaining claims were dismissed without prejudice. The federal defendants joined the motion after a June 18, 2026 Office of Legal Counsel opinion concluded that neither Section 504 nor Title II of the ADA imposes an integration mandate on states.
What changed
The vacated provisions concern integration: the obligation to administer programs in the most integrated setting appropriate, and the rule's provisions on serious risk of institutionalization. Those provisions primarily affected state service systems. Nothing else in part 84 was vacated. The court did not declare Section 504 unconstitutional, and that claim was not before it.
For education, the more important fact is what was left in place. Subpart I, the web content and mobile application accessibility requirements, was not challenged and is unaffected. Under an HHS interim final rule published May 11, 2026, the compliance date for recipients with 15 or more employees is May 11, 2027, and for smaller recipients May 10, 2028. The technical standard remains WCAG 2.1 Level AA.
What it means for institutions
Colleges and universities with medical schools, nursing and allied health programs, clinics, or HHS research funding are HHS recipients, as are PK-12 districts and other entities that receive HHS funds such as Head Start. For them, the judgment is a narrow change. The rest of the 2024 rule remains in force.
The practical risk is misreading. A report that the HHS Section 504 rule was struck can travel quickly through a campus, and a digital accessibility project should not lose budget or momentum because of it. The HHS web accessibility timeline was extended once; it was not vacated. Obligations under the statute itself, under the Department of Education's Section 504 regulations at 34 CFR part 104, and, for public institutions, under ADA Title II are unchanged. The DOJ Title II web accessibility rule currently requires compliance by April 26, 2027 for public entities serving populations of 50,000 or more and by April 26, 2028 for smaller entities.
What compliance leaders should review
- Confirm whether the institution, or any unit within it, receives HHS financial assistance directly or as a subrecipient and is therefore covered by 45 CFR part 84.
- Correct any internal summary that describes the HHS Section 504 rule as vacated. The accurate description is that six integration provisions were vacated.
- Keep web and mobile accessibility work on schedule for May 11, 2027 under the HHS rule and, for public entities, the applicable DOJ Title II date.
- Update policy and procedure citations that reference the vacated sections.
- Where clinical or patient-facing programs exist, review their policies against the provisions of part 84 that remain in force.
What remains uncertain
Because both sides requested the judgment, an appeal by the parties appears unlikely, but the docket has not been independently confirmed, and the federal government's appeal period remains open. The Department of Justice preserved its position that vacatur should be limited to the parties, while the court noted Fifth Circuit precedent treating vacatur as operating on the rule itself. Litigation filed by the National Federation of the Blind in May 2026 challenging the HHS and DOJ extensions of the web accessibility compliance dates remains pending, and its outcome could affect those dates.
Sources
- Order and Final Judgment, Texas v. Kennedy, No. 5:24-cv-225-H, ECF No. 125 (N.D. Tex. Sept. 23, 2026)
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Extension of Compliance Dates for Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability: Accessibility of Web Content and Mobile Applications, Interim Final Rule, 91 FR 25496 (May 11, 2026)
- U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel, Application of the Rehabilitation Act and Americans with Disabilities Act to State Institutionalization of Patients with Severe Mental Illness or Disabilities (June 18, 2026)
- U.S. Department of Justice, Extension of Compliance Dates for Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability: Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities, Interim Final Rule, Federal Register (Apr. 20, 2026)