A4L Community Newsletter, December 2025

It’s hard to believe that 2025 is already coming to a close. It has been a whirlwind of a year. With new administrations in all of our communities, US, AU & NZ, there have been many changes impacting the educational ecosystems across our membership with rippling impacts to be felt in years to come. As a Community driven by our members to address their most pressing needs, A4L has remained agile and responsive to these challenges. I continue to be inspired daily by the commitment and dedication of our members and leadership to address the challenges being faced by the PK20W+ ecosystem across the globe…

Join the Celebration…

We’re thrilled to announce a major milestone… the Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC), a special interest group of the Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community, is celebrating 10 years!

Leading The Way: How Six States are Championing Student Data Privacy

In an era where schools depend on digital tools for everything from instruction to administration, the question of how to protect student data has never been more urgent. While federal policies like FERPA and COPPA provide a foundation, they often leave states and districts with more questions than answers. In most of the country, responsibility for data privacy has fallen to local education agencies (LEAs), leaving them to navigate complex issues with limited resources.

A4L Community Newsletter, September 2025

The new school year is well underway, and we want to recognize the incredible work our employees, volunteers, members, partners, and Alliances are doing to support students and protect their privacy. As classrooms come alive with learning, the Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community remains committed to providing the resources, collaboration, and community you need to navigate this important work…

Request For Proposal (RFP)

The A4L Community is seeking proposals to develop an assessment framework for third-party certification to the Global Educational Security Standard (GESS) and to conduct assessments of K–12 educational technology products.

A4L Community Newsletter, June 2025

As we reach the midpoint of 2025, the A4L Community continues to demonstrate what’s possible when interoperability and privacy are treated not as competing priorities—but as complementary pillars of a secure, learner-centered data ecosystem.

This year, the development of the Registry 2.0 initiative has taken center stage. When launched with a redesigned interface, enhanced metadata capabilities, and a growing library of shared agreements, the new SDPC Resource Registry will help districts and vendors streamline privacy workflows while improving transparency and trust. The Registry 2.0 pre-conference workshop at our Annual Meeting was a powerful reminder of how far we’ve come—and how much more we can do together.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s JEDx Initiative Advances New Tool to Support Seamless Sharing of Skills and Credentials

Release Represents Milestone Toward National Alignment of Skills and Learning Data Across Education, Workforce, and Hiring Systems

A4L Community announce new Appointments to the Board of Directors

The Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community is pleased to announce the appointment of June Gerred, Oklahoma Department of Education and Patrick Devanney, Classlink to the Board of Directors, effective immediately.

A4L Community Newsletter, March 2025

I can still remember my first A4L conference in 2016. Walking into the room, filled with people whose names I recognized from emails and phone conversations, the “old guard” of SIF. I had so much respect for that group that had founded not just a standard but a movement, a cause worth fighting for, to simplify the way education data was shared across the rapidly increasing number of software systems that schools, districts, and states were using to manage the operational and instructional business of education. And I also saw opportunities for change and modernization, as we looked to move forward and continue to ensure that our cause was relevant to the needs of our stakeholders. I found a like-minded group within the organization, and together we created exciting new possibilities at A4L.

A4L Community announce North American Leadership for 2025-2026

The Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community is proud to announce the North American Leadership Group for 2025. The Leadership Group brings a wealth of experience and knowledge in education, data management, privacy, security, and business acumen. The Leadership Group will 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 in North America.