Opinion: K-12 Needs Deeper State-Vendor Collaboration

In K-12 education, 2025 was defined by many intense, and sometimes competing, currents. A surge in cybersecurity incidents and vendor breaches, alongside growing instability in both politics and funding, placed strain on the ed-tech sphere in particular. Together, these pressures challenge us to take a hard look at how states, districts and vendors work together. As 2026 begins, the challenge is not simply responding to the next crisis, but also deliberately strengthening the systems that support teaching and learning.

These major and rapidly evolving challenges unfold against the equally volatile backdrop of changing tech usage in the classroom. From the pandemic to present, we’ve seen the pendulum swing from a lack of tech availability to potential tech overuse and excessive screen time. Now, we need to get to the right kind of tech use. Finding a responsible middle ground is not just a pedagogical issue; it is a trust issue, especially as third-party security breaches continue to expose students and educators to real harm. Trust, however, cannot be restored through bans or impulse buying. It must be built through data-informed and disciplined decision-making.

States, districts, schools, educators and families each have roles to play. Students need the bold interventions that ed tech can offer now more than ever, but only when those tools are selected intentionally, implemented coherently and held to clear expectations. This moment calls for using neither less nor more technology, but instead for better systems to decide which solutions belong in classrooms, why they belong there, and who is accountable if they fail.

Security challenges, shifting approaches to classroom technology, and fiscal volatility can no longer be treated as separate problems. High-profile breaches have pushed cybersecurity out of the IT back office and into boardrooms and governor’s offices, forcing clearer expectations around accountability, risk and responsibility. At the same time, Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief roll-offs, changing state priorities and political uncertainty are making long-term planning harder, not easier. States must now prioritize security, sustainability and student outcomes as core values in ed-tech decision-making. And vendors must go beyond merely claiming to align with those values and be prepared to demonstrate them.

The transactional procurement model that has long defined state-vendor relationships cannot continue. Going forward, states and vendors must form collaborative partnerships to meet the moment and serve districts and students as well and efficiently as they can. States can require vendors to comply with third-party security certifications or build their own libraries of vetted ed-tech tools. However states and vendors choose to approach their dynamics, one thing is clear: partnership can no longer mean periodic collaboration, sponsorship visibility, or parallel efforts aimed at the same audience. The complexity of the moment demands something deeper: shared problem definition, shared accountability for outcomes, and shared willingness to adapt when conditions change.

States or vendors that continue to operate at arm’s length from one another will struggle to manage risk, communicate with constituents and deliver durable impact. By contrast, those willing to move toward shared accountability through clearer incident-response roles, joint risk management, coordinated public communication, and co-designed implementation and support will be better positioned to withstand volatility and deliver results. States and vendors may not enter relationships with one another on an equal footing. But an operational shift toward transparency, shared responsibility and clearly defined success measures can go a long way toward correcting that asymmetry.

The opportunity is clear, but so are the consequences of inaction. States and vendors must work together to ensure students’ personally identifying information is safe, to right-size classroom technology use, and to confront growing fiscal pressures with honesty and coordination. If they do not, it will be districts, schools and ultimately students who bear the cost.

Collaboration can’t be optional. Students can’t wait for systems to catch up to the moment. The time to act — together — is now, because durable progress will only come from shared responsibility.

Jeff Carlson is head of K-12 partnerships at the education software company Clever.

Julia Fallon is the executive director of the State Education Technology Directors Association.