NEXT@ Clever 2026 Product Announcements: Secure Layered Authentication, Classroom Insights, and AI Governance

Our roadmap has always been shaped directly by the feedback of K-12 IT and education leaders. As cyber incidents escalate and pressure to demonstrate the impact of technology investments grows, schools face three urgent challenges: ensuring only trusted identities can log in, measuring the value of digital learning, and controlling who can access sensitive data. As a trusted partner to over 111,000 schools worldwide, we’re strengthening the identity foundation you rely on to meet this moment—ensuring every student has safe, reliable access to learning no matter the pressure.

Protect every login with layered authentication

As cyber incidents targeting student identities increase, leaders shared with us the need to have strong account protection that doesn’t interrupt learning. Clever now offers both Secure Password Management and Classroom MFA, giving school organizations layered, age-appropriate defense without taking time away from instruction.

Methods like SMS and smartphones just don’t work in a school setting… without wasting 10 minutes of class time or playing password theater.

Michael Steinberg

Assistant Director of Technology, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Central School District

Classroom-friendly passwords and MFA for the modern classroom

Secure Password Management (part of Clever IDM) automates credential lifecycles across Google and Entra ID. Bulk resets for passwords, account claims, and MFA (available now) allow teams to neutralize suspicious activity across entire cohorts in seconds. Automated recommended passwords that align with district complexity policies arrive in February 2027.

Classroom MFA (available now) delivers device-free authentication built specifically for K-12, featuring eight student-friendly factors like Clever Badges, login pictures, and PINs. Device trust for Windows devices on Microsoft Edge (available now) eliminates repetitive prompts on managed hardware. Unified authentication management and policy user groups follow by Back to School 2027.

Learn more about Clever’s Identity and Security Solutions.

One place to provision and manage staff identities

We are expanding our capabilities for district employees in Clever. Later in 2027, we will offer identity management for staff, so you have one central place to provision staff accounts and the workflows to manage them.

Entra school organizations: plan for school-friendly MFA options

Starting February 1, 2027, Microsoft is eliminating voice and text sign-in codes for Entra ID in favor of phone-dependent passkeys. Classroom MFA gives school organizations a compliant, device-free alternative for employees designed for K-12, including device trust on Windows devices using Microsoft Edge and fallback login methods for cameraless devices. View the one-pager to learn more.

One place for classroom technology insights 

School organizations are under intense pressure to measure screen time and prove the ROI of digital learning to boards and families. Clever centralizes application usage data so you can use it for instructional decisions and advocacy amidst rising pressures.

Digital tools can better personalize the experience for more kids, and so our instruction is better… We need to find that balance in a way that preserves equity and the opportunity for student engagement, maintains teacher voices, and provides opportunities for family choice and engagement.

Ryan Hansen

Director of Digital Learning, Davis School District

Edtech Analytics provides granular application login insights across your entire ecosystem (available now). Starting in November 2026, admins can measure active screen time down to the individual student —which tracks engaged minutes on active browser tabs rather than background windows, alongside sharing school-specific application lists with families. Safari iOS tracking for primary learners follows by Back to School 2027. Learn more about Edtech Analytics.

Frictionless Access: Clever is now fully available in Spanish to remove language barriers at sign-in. Coming next, macOS Platform SSO integration will allow students and educators to unlock Apple devices using Clever Badges and Classroom MFA.

Share the least amount of data with applications and staff

As school communities prioritize vendor data governance to protect sensitive data, coordinating custom data requirements across multiple application partners risks delaying access to digital learning tools. Clever’s data governance tools enable admins to enforce least-privilege data access. Through secure, encrypted APIs, admins can provision, modify, or revoke data shared at any time without disrupting classrooms.

“Every contract we have with an edtech vendor specifies the individual data elements that will be shared. So, the fact that Clever allows us to control these things in a UI and help us was appreciated.”

Manuel Castañeda

Executive Director, Analytics & Intelligence, Broward County Public Schools

Field Access (available now): Built on data minimization, field-level access controls let you limit the exact SIS attributes shared with each of Clever’s 1,250+ application partners to match your data privacy agreements.

Role-Based Access Controls (available now): Granular permissions let you delegate routine tasks—like password resets and Badge generation—to school-level staff without exposing broader administrative controls. User groups for application rostering rules arrive by Back to School 2027.

Govern data shared with AI tools

School organizations are already putting AI to work, from automating routine tasks to surfacing insights from school data. AI tools can free up time for human-focused work, but to do so they often need access to sensitive student, staff, or district data.

Take a teacher using an AI tool to draft student reports. To do that, the tool needs to read student records. Who decides what the AI tool can access, and who has visibility into what it’s doing Without visibility, establishing AI governance becomes more challenging.

When you look at AI governance, it just kind of spider webs out… How do you constrain them? How do you secure them? How do you decide what access they have?”

Kris Hagel

Peninsula School District

Governing AI becomes more manageable when you can answer these three questions about any AI tool:

1. Who are you, and who are you acting on behalf of?
2. What data can you access?
3. What actions did you take?

Clever has answered these questions for people and applications for more than 10 years and is now extending the same controls to AI tools. Whether it’s a student, a teacher, an app, or an AI tool, you should control who can access your district’s data and systems, and see what actions they take.

Take our 5-minute survey to help shape what we build for your district’s AI governance needs.

Next steps

Is your team overwhelmed by figuring out age-appropriate passwords and MFA? Speak with a Security Specialist.

Already a Clever customer? See the full roadmap in Clever Academy.

New to Clever? Sign up for your free Clever account.

Go deeper: Register for upcoming identity, access, and governance sessions.