Federal Findings Tracker

FERPA (20 U.S.C. § 1232g) governs the disclosure of student education records and applies to every district receiving federal funds. The Department's Privacy Technical Assistance Center has published targeted AI-adjacent resources (the AI Grading Compromise Facilitator Guide is on the studentprivacy.ed.gov resource list as of this refresh) alongside the longstanding Guidance for Reasonable Methods and Written Agreements that districts cite when contracting with third-party vendors under the school-official exception.

The implication for districts: existing FERPA contract obligations apply to AI vendors today, and PTAC has begun issuing AI-specific facilitator guides. The Department has not yet issued a comprehensive Dear Colleague letter or Notice of Proposed Rulemaking specifically addressing generative AI vendors under the school-official exception; districts should expect further PTAC publications and monitor studentprivacy.ed.gov.

The FTC's amendments to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule were approved January 16, 2025, published in the Federal Register April 22, 2025 (90 FR 16918), became effective June 23, 2025, and reached their general compliance deadline on April 22, 2026. The amended Rule restricts operators of online services directed to children under 13 from using personal information for purposes outside what parents consented to, including use of children's data to train AI models.

The Commission has continued post-publication enforcement and follow-on action. On February 25, 2026, the FTC issued a Policy Statement on enforcement discretion for age-verification data collection. Recent K-12-adjacent settlements include Disney ($10 million, approved December 2025) and Apitor Technology (September 2025). An FTC workshop on age-verification technologies was held January 28, 2026.

The implication for districts: with the April 22, 2026 compliance deadline now past, AI tools used in K-3 and elementary contexts must have operator-level COPPA practices documented and current. Districts relying on the school-authorization mechanism for COPPA consent should confirm in writing that vendors are not using student inputs for model training.

EO 14365, "Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence," directs federal agencies to work toward a single national framework for AI regulation and creates an AI Litigation Task Force within the Department of Justice with the sole responsibility of challenging state AI laws on grounds of federal preemption, constitutionality, and effect on interstate commerce. The Order also directs the Department of Commerce to evaluate state AI laws and contemplates conditioning federal funding on state-level alignment.

Implementation has continued. On March 20, 2026, the White House released a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence legislative blueprint pursuant to the Order, recommending federal preemption of state AI laws and targeted federal standards in areas including child safety and digital replicas.

The implication for districts: districts in states with their own AI procurement, transparency, or impact-assessment laws are operating under a federal-state legal conflict that the Order has activated but not resolved. Whether a district must comply with state law that the federal government is challenging remains, as of this refresh, an open question for district counsel.

NIST released a concept note on April 7, 2026, announcing development of an AI RMF Profile for Trustworthy AI in Critical Infrastructure. The base AI RMF (1.0, January 2023) and Generative AI Profile (NIST AI 600-1, July 2024) remain the active voluntary frameworks. K-12 school systems are not currently designated critical infrastructure for purposes of this profile, but federal agencies (including the Department of Education, FTC, and OCR) increasingly reference NIST AI RMF principles in enforcement and guidance.

The implication for districts: NIST AI RMF alignment is not mandatory, but it is the de facto federal standard of care. Districts citing the framework in vendor RFPs and AI governance policies are aligning with where federal enforcement is heading.

The Department finalized a Supplemental Priority on Advancing AI in Education on April 13, 2026 (91 FR 18774), codified under 34 CFR Part 75 and Docket ED-2025-OS-0118. Across the Department's discretionary grant programs, applications that aim to expand the understanding of AI or its appropriate and ethical use in education will be prioritized, with additional weight to proposals integrating AI literacy into teaching and learning to improve student outcomes. The Federal Register record reports that over 300 parties submitted comments on the proposed priority during the comment period that began with the July 21, 2025 Notice of Proposed Priority and closed on August 20, 2025.

The implication for districts: applications for ED discretionary grants now compete on AI alignment. Districts pursuing ED competitive funding should expect to address the AI priority (as an absolute, competitive preference, or invitational designation depending on the specific competition the Secretary selects).

Published in the same Federal Register issue as the AI priority, 91 FR 18780 establishes a companion Supplemental Priority on Career Pathways and Workforce Readiness. Together with the AI priority, it signals the Department's intent to align discretionary funding with workforce-relevant AI competencies.

The implication for districts: CTE programs, dual-enrollment partnerships, and workforce-aligned curriculum proposals can pair the two priorities to strengthen ED grant applications. The two priorities are designed to be used together in a single competition.

NSF 25-035, the Dear Colleague Letter on Expanding K-12 Resources for AI Education, invited existing NSF awardees with K-12 AI or computer science education experience to submit supplemental funding proposals for awards of up to $300,000 or 20 percent of the original award budget. The DCL operationalizes the goals of EO 14277, "Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth" (April 23, 2025), by routing existing-award supplements toward K-12 AI literacy efforts. The supplement submission deadline of December 1, 2025 has passed; the DCL itself remains posted as a record of the federal action.

The implication for districts: districts were not direct applicants. Districts should track which NSF-funded universities, research centers, and CS education networks in their region received supplemental awards under this DCL and what K-12 AI literacy resources those awardees plan to deliver into classrooms in the 12 months following the supplement award date.

H.R. 8747, the K-12 AI Literacy and Readiness Act of 2026, was introduced by Representative Randy Fine (R-FL-6) on May 12, 2026 and referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce the same day. The bill would amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to include certain curriculum expenses as permissible uses of funds, giving states and school districts express authority to use existing federal resources for AI literacy and AI-readiness activities. The bill does not authorize new appropriations; it clarifies allowable uses of current funds. As of this refresh, the bill has no cosponsors and no markup has been scheduled.

The implication for districts: if enacted, the bill would create explicit federal authority for using current ESEA funds toward AI literacy programs, clarifying a question districts currently navigate through Department guidance rather than statute. Districts that have already begun spending federal funds on AI literacy under the Department's April 13, 2026 AI Education priority (91 FR 18774) would gain statutory backing for that activity.