OK, I got it. I just needed to add the workbook to the vlookup explicitly
'looks up the student data from the monthly call/mailmerge spreadsheet
Private Sub DataLookup_Click()
Dim yellow As String
Dim purple As String
Dim LtGreen As String
Dim LtBlue As String
Dim lColumn As Long
'Dim wkb As Workbook
'Set wkb = Workbooks.Open("BobMCCommentPrep.xlsm")
Set ws = Workbooks("BobMCCommentPrep.xlsm").Worksheets("#assperwk")
'Set ws = BobMCCommentPrep.Worksheets("#assperwk")
'Set ws = ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets("#assperwk")
lColumn = ws.Cells(2, Columns.Count).End(xlToLeft).Column
'The following vlookups pull student data from weekly monitoring or monthly call spreadsheet
contact = Me.StudentName.Value
Me.CurrentGrade.Value = Application.WorksheetFunction.VLookup(contact, Workbooks("BobMCCommentPrep.xlsm").Sheets("CurrentWk").Range("A1:Bl400"), 12, False)
Me.PercentComp.Value = Application.WorksheetFunction.VLookup(contact, Workbooks("BobMCCommentPrep.xlsm").Sheets("CurrentWk").Range("A1:Bl400"), 10, False)
Me.LastAss.Value = Application.WorksheetFunction.VLookup(contact, Workbooks("BobMCCommentPrep.xlsm").Sheets("CurrentWk").Range("A1:Bl400"), 27, False)
Me.WeeksBehind.Value = Application.WorksheetFunction.VLookup(contact, Workbooks("BobMCCommentPrep.xlsm").Sheets("CurrentWk").Range("A1:Bl400"), 21, False)
Me.VSAComments.Value = Application.WorksheetFunction.VLookup(contact, Workbooks("BobMCCommentPrep.xlsm").Sheets("CurrentWk").Range("A1:Bl400"), 26, False)
yellow = Application.WorksheetFunction.VLookup(contact, Workbooks("BobMCCommentPrep.xlsm").Sheets("CurrentWk").Range("A1:Bl400"), 22, False)
purple = Application.WorksheetFunction.VLookup(contact, Workbooks("BobMCCommentPrep.xlsm").Sheets("CurrentWk").Range("A1:Bl400"), 23, False)
LtGreen = Application.WorksheetFunction.VLookup(contact, Workbooks("BobMCCommentPrep.xlsm").Sheets("CurrentWk").Range("A1:Bl400"), 24, False)
LtBlue = Application.WorksheetFunction.VLookup(contact, Workbooks("BobMCCommentPrep.xlsm").Sheets("CurrentWk").Range("A1:Bl400"), 25, False)
Thank you very much
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