Sponsors of Registered Apprenticeship programs will run under a much shorter set of federal nondiscrimination rules starting January 5, 2027. The U.S. Department of Labor published a final rule on November 6, 2026 that rewrites 29 CFR part 30, the regulation that has governed equal opportunity in Registered Apprenticeship since 1963, and removes its affirmative action requirements entirely.

The change reaches a large system. By the department's own count, 26,628 active Registered Apprenticeship programs were training more than 700,000 apprentices at the end of fiscal year 2025, up 77 percent from 395,764 apprentices in fiscal year 2016. The department estimates that 7,813 sponsors had five or more apprentices, the threshold at which the old rule's fullest obligations applied.

What the rule removes

The final rule, issued by the department's Employment and Training Administration, rescinds the apprenticeship-specific equal employment opportunity framework that the department last overhauled in 2016. For every sponsor, that framework carried a general duty to engage in affirmative action, which included naming a person to manage the program's equal opportunity policy, running anti-harassment training, posting an equal opportunity pledge and carrying out universal outreach and recruitment.

Sponsors with five or more apprentices also had to keep a written affirmative action program, run utilization analyses comparing their apprentices with the available workforce by race, sex and ethnicity, and set numerical goals where the analysis showed underutilization. Those sponsors also had to invite apprentices to disclose a disability voluntarily when they enrolled and every year after, and to measure themselves against a utilization goal for people with disabilities. All of that goes.

The rule also drops the old sections on how apprentices must be selected, the recordkeeping attached to part 30 and the separate apprenticeship rule against intimidation and retaliation. Apprentices may still tell a sponsor about a disability on their own, and the department notes that doing so is how a person requests a reasonable accommodation.

What replaces it

In place of the old framework, the revised section 30.3 requires every sponsor to comply with all applicable federal and state laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age (40 or older), genetic information or disability. The department ties those categories to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. The protection covers apprentices and applicants with respect to any benefit, term or condition of employment connected to the apprenticeship. A sponsor that fails to comply can face enforcement up to deregistration of its program.

Compliance with part 30 will be checked when a Registration Agency reviews a program under part 29, the general apprenticeship standards, rather than in separate equal opportunity compliance reviews.

How complaints will work

Until now, an apprentice could file a discrimination complaint with the Registration Agency on ETA Form 9039, and the agency was required to investigate and give written findings to both sides. Sponsors also had to tell apprentices in writing about their right to complain.

Under the final rule, a Registration Agency that receives a discrimination complaint must refer the person immediately to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Attorney General, a state fair employment practices agency or another enforcement body with jurisdiction. The investigation duties and the sponsor notice requirement are removed, and the department is retiring Form 9039.

What it means for State Apprenticeship Agencies

Programs are registered either by the federal Office of Apprenticeship or by a State Apprenticeship Agency recognized by the department, and the revised part 30 applies to sponsors registered by either. Any state that wants new or continued recognition must submit a state plan for nondiscrimination in apprenticeship that conforms to the revised part 30 within one year of the effective date, which puts that deadline at January 5, 2028. The department says it wants sponsors to face one consistent set of nondiscrimination requirements across states and will offer technical assistance, including on requests for more time for good cause.

The record behind it

The department received 372 comment submissions on the proposed rule. Of those, 311 came from a single form letter campaign and 56 were unique, with five more duplicates or off topic. Commenters included state and local agencies, labor unions, trade and professional associations, employers and sponsors. The department describes the removed requirements as burdensome and expects the change to reduce administrative work and support growth in Registered Apprenticeship; the preamble also sets out comments that raised concerns about effects on women, racial and ethnic minorities and people with disabilities, along with the department's responses.

What to do before January 5

For a sponsor, the practical steps are to read the revised part 30 text, confirm which Registration Agency oversees the program, and check whether the state has its own apprenticeship nondiscrimination rules, since state law still applies. For colleges and training providers that serve as related-instruction partners, the program standards they help deliver may be revised as sponsors update their paperwork. Apprentices who believe they have faced discrimination will, from January 5, be pointed to the EEOC or a state fair employment practices agency rather than to the apprenticeship office.

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