| A4L COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER | SEPTEMBER 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. |
COMMUNITY REVIEW: National Data Privacy Agreement (NDPA) v2.3
[MEMBERS ONLY] The Community Review period (#2) is closing on September 25, 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. READ MORE
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. READ MORE
| TRAINING / RESOURCES |
FERPA 101 training: giving edtech leaders practical, expert‑led guidance to understand FERPA and strengthen privacy practices.
Vendor Privacy training: giving edtech teams a practical, self-paced, expert‑built path to meeting K–12 privacy laws & reducing compliance risk.
Legislative Tracker: [MEMBER ONLY] State legislatures are proposing bills that could reshape edtech—from AI limits to new privacy rules & screen‑time restrictions.
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. READ MORE
SAVE THE DATES!
We are currently finalizing details for our annual Convening, more information will be coming soon… In the meantime, please save the dates – MARCH 9-11, 2027 – and join us in Memphis, TENNESSEE!
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.
That combination matters because it moves JSON support from written guidance toward implementation confidence. READ MORE
| SPOTLIGHT: 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. READ MORE |
Other News from the A4L Community
[MEMBERS ONLY] Data Hygiene First: Getting Your District Addresses Ready for Registry 2.0 READ MORE
[MEMBERS ONLY] Update Your Communication Preferences READ MORE
[MEMBERS ONLY] Improving API Accuracy in the SDPC Resource Registry READ MORE
Looking to make a real impact on data privacy, security, and interoperability in PK12 education?
Join the A4L Community to access trusted tools like the SIF Specification, the National Data Privacy Agreement (NDPA), and the SDPC Resource Registry, collaborate on data privacy and interoperability, shape standards through member‑only projects, and ensure their voice influences the future of secure, effective PK12 data use.
Join today and add your voice to a Community making a difference – FIND OUT MORE
| Welcome New Members! |
