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.

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.

COMMUNITY REVIEW: National Data Privacy Agreement (NDPA) v2.3

On March 25, 2026, the North American Privacy Leadership Group (NA-P-LG) approved the National Data Privacy Agreement (NDPA) v2.3 for A4L Community Review. Community Review will be open from Tuesday, April 7 until Tuesday, May 5, 2026 (inclusive). All A4L Community Members are encouraged to participate in the Community Review. […]

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…

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…

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 Newsletter, June 2024

Although the A4L Community has gone through a lot of changes over the last year, there is a great deal of positive momentum. We have many new members stepping up to leadership positions, our overall membership continues to grow and the Association Board has adopted new strategic goals, actions and targets that will drive our work for the year to come.

A4L Community Announces Major Milestones

Last week the Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community held its Annual Summit in Arlington VA, in collaboration with the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC) and HR Open Standards Consortium. The joint Summit demonstrated the standards body’s vision to collaborate and work together with other standards groups, towards the ultimate goal of improving interoperability, privacy and security for lifelong learning.

Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC) announce the release of the National Data Privacy Agreement, version 2

The Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC), a special interest
group of the non-profit Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community, is proud to announce the release of the
National Data Privacy Agreement (NDPA), version 2, which has been further developed to streamline
application contracting and set common expectations between schools/districts and marketplace
providers.