A new ed tech certification scheme will be government-run and participation may become a legal requirement if uptake is low, ministers have announced. The Department for Education has fleshed out its plan to launch a certification scheme for ed tech products including management information systems and filtering tools. A consultation on the new scheme said accreditation will focus on whether products meet safety requirements. Here’s everything schools need to know. 1. Risks of ed tech The certification scheme was proposed after a report from the Information Commissioner’s Office identified recurring compliance gaps with data protection legislation. Schools have also expressed concerns about using ed tech. The technology in schools survey 2025 found 50 per cent of leaders said safeguarding and data concerns were a barrier to increasing the uptake of technology by schools. This could also impact companies which “face a slow and fragmented route into education settings with no clear way to demonstrate they meet safety expectations”, the consultation said. The DfE said evidence showed three significant areas of potential risk for children when using ed tech. These are data infringements, exposure to harmful content and impacts on their cognitive, social and emotional and mental health. 2. Safety accreditation The DfE has proposed a safety accreditation scheme for certain ed tech products. These are filtering products, high-risk data processing products, student-facing generative AI tools and student-facing personalised AI tools. For high-risk data processing products, this could include management information systems, AI tutoring tools, personalised learning systems and behaviour and safeguarding systems. Excluded products include general office and communication tools, interactive whiteboards, computers and tablets, and staff facing generative AI tools and administrative systems that do not involve children’s data. The consultation said the scheme would assess whether products minimise the risk of emotional or developmental harm to children, support compliance with legal obligations and ensure the security and integrity of the system, its data and users. There will be different criteria to meet for the four types of products in scope, the DfE said. This will not “make a wider assessment on the product’s overall quality or educational effectiveness”, unless the effectiveness is directly relevant to safety, the document said. 3. In-house model chosen The DfE says it considered a department-owned and licensed scheme would be the most effective way of running the certification. But this would still see one or more organisations appointed to carry out independent certifications. The consultation said this was the preferred option as the DfE would need to “in-house the necessary technical expertise” to run it completely by themselves. 4. Legal requirement considered The DfE says the proposals were “technically non-mandatory”, but that there would be a “clear expectation” in statutory guidance for ed tech products to become certified. However, at present the government has no powers to force schools to use only certified products or for products to become certified. This approach “may be preferable initially, allowing time to assess the scheme’s impact, ensure it operates as expected and address any challenges. “However, the absence of a legal requirement may lead to reduced uptake and impact. Some education settings may give certification less weight in procurement decisions, while some suppliers may decide not to seek product certification,” the consultation said. It has asked respondents whether they think legislation may be needed in the future, such as giving the DfE powers to require certain products to be used only in defined circumstances. It added that any future move to make certified products mandatory would be “supported by further impact analysis”. The consultation is open until 4 February 2027.