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Getting involved with shaping the future of the NDPA

Last week, we opened the second round of Community Review for an eventual version 2.3 of the National Data Privacy Agreement (NDPA). The Community Review is open to A4L members to provide feedback on the proposed changes and will remain open until September 15, 2026. After this date, the NDPA Project Team will review the feedback received and address each item. Once this review is complete, there may be a few minor updates, but ultimately, we anticipate finalizing NDPA v2.3 sometime in October at which point it will be available for states around the country to adopt.

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Take notice: How FERPA’s annual notification requirements interact with the NDPA

Most districts around the country are in back-to-school mode, which often includes sending parents various notices regarding school policies. Some of these relate to federal privacy laws like FERPA, which is important to note for those schools using the National Data Privacy Agreement (NDPA). The NDPA is based on using FERPA’s school official exception, which includes a requirement that schools must provide parents annually with a notice of their FERPA rights. This is such an important requirement that it is explicitly called in section 3.2 of NDPA v2.2.

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JSON Validation Arrives for SIF Unity

The A4L Community is pleased to highlight an important milestone for SIF Unity, built through years of standards work, implementation experience, and international collaboration.
Through continued work between A4L, the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC), and colleagues in Australia, PESC Compliant JSON now has a stronger practical foundation for exchanging SIF Unity data alongside XML.

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Introducing the Data Observations (DO) Program: Technical Testing, Built by the Community

Schools, districts, and state agencies are asked to trust a growing universe of education technology with some of the most sensitive data they hold — and to do it with limited staff, limited time, and limited visibility into how those tools actually behave. EdTech providers, meanwhile, want to do right by their customers but often lack a clear, shared standard to test against.

The Data Observations (DO) Program exists to close that gap.

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A New Chapter for the A4L Community: Introducing Our Refreshed Mission and Vision

For more than two decades, the Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community has done one thing relentlessly well: bring education’s many voices together to solve the hard, shared problems of managing and protecting learner data. Schools and districts, states and ministries, vendors and consultants — all at the same table, building open standards and practical tools that no single organization could deliver alone.
Today, we’re proud to share an important milestone in that journey. On June 10, 2026, the A4L Community formally adopted a refreshed Mission and Vision — statements that reflect not only who we are, but who our community has asked us to become.

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Newsletter

A4L Community Newsletter, June 2026

Welcome to our latest quarterly newsletter, where we bring together the news, ideas, and opportunities that matter most to our Community.
Whether you’re a member or discovering us for the first time, this A4L Newsletter is designed to keep you informed, inspired, and connected. You’ll find updates from across the Community, plus ways to get involved as well as member-only content that showcases the value of being part of it. If you’re not yet a member, be sure to click the button below to find out more.

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The Current EdTech Backlash, AI and the NDPA

Dan Meyer recently published an article on his Substack titled “Everyone in Edtech Should Show Their Cards” about the current backlash in schools against edtech, specifically citing the draft plan at LAUSD to limit screen time, particularly for elementary students. This and similar initiatives lumping all edtech together as useful distractions has led to a social media tag of #notalledtech, particularly among providers that want to argue that their products shouldn’t be banned. Dan, who is a vice president at the edtech company Amplify, argues that these companies need to put their cards on the table and post videos of how their products are being used to back up their claims with demonstrable evidence (and then he does exactly that).

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Press Release

A4L announce Community Leadership for 2026-2027

Washington, DC, 28 May 2026—The Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community is proud to announce the Community Leadership Groups for 2026. The Leadership Groups bring a wealth of experience and knowledge in education, data management, privacy, security, and business acumen. They oversee management of the SIF Specification and the Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC) as well as contribute to the development of strategies for the global Community, and guiding development of the A4L Community internationally.

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Vendors Leading the Way: How SDPC Members Are Championing Student Data Privacy

When people think about student data privacy, the conversation often centers on schools, districts, and state agencies working to protect students. But some of the most committed champions of student data privacy are the vendors who build the tools students and teachers use every day. These companies, many of them quietly doing exceptional work, have made privacy a core value, not an afterthought.

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The Time for GESS is Now: Why EdTech Cybersecurity Can No Longer Wait

The EdTech marketplace has a problem that everyone in the sector knows about, complains about, and has somehow tolerated for far too long: there is no common security bar. No shared expectations. No single target for providers to aim at. And while we have spent years discussing frameworks and requirements across jurisdictions, the breaches have kept coming — bigger, more frequent, and more damaging to the students whose data sits at the center of every incident.

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A4L Community Newsletter, March 2026

It is truly an exciting and invigorating time to be an active part of the A4L Community. There is so much positive energy and momentum driving numerous productive projects forward, fueled by the dedication of our members. This was undeniably evident at our recent 2026 SDPC & Unity Convening in the beautiful city of Long Beach, just a couple of weeks ago.

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