At the start of the 2026-27 school year, the U.S. Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) issued a Dear Colleague Letter reiterating the legal requirements for local education agencies and state education agencies around education records under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA). This is a required notice under federal regulations, yet this Letter also emphasized particular points of potential noncompliance and reiterated that noncompliance can result in the loss of federal funding.