Children in New York City and Los Angeles, the country's two largest school districts, are beginning this school year with strict new rules: Artificial intelligence will be banned for most student use.
The districts' policies are part of a messy patchwork of new laws and guidelines that have spread across the United States, leaving inconsistent rules state-by-state, or even district-by-district.
The problem: No one knows for sure the best way to use powerful new tech to help students learn better, so some schools are pausing its use entirely.
The tools could be helpful to students in a variety of ways. Easy-to-use generative AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, could be used to tutor students on how to write a better essay, explain math concepts or help them
brainstorm a science fair project.
They could also be used to write an essay from scratch, solve a math problem and plan a whole science fair project with a single prompt.
Adding to the confusion, there's a big difference between AI tools designed for education and ones that students have easy access to on their phones, tablets and laptops.
Meanwhile, teachers can use AI tools to craft lesson plans or write communications to families, sparking a whole other debate.
In many ways, it's the new Wild West for educators and students.
The questions districts should be asking when crafting their guidelines should focus on how AI can play a role in learning outcomes, said Chris Agnew, director of the Generative AI for Education Hub at Stanford University. Outright bans may not be the answer.
"What are the capacities we want to develop in young people, what are the learning experiences that promote building those capacities and what could AI's role be in either helping or hindering those learning experiences that we want?" he said.
Students go back to class with new rules
The majority of New York Public Schools students, all students up until high school, will begin school after Labor Day with a newly announced "moratorium" on student-facing generative AI and a new policy on screen time. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the rules on Sept. 2.
Companion chatbots will be prohibited for all grades. Other student AI tools up to eighth grade will be eliminated. About 5% of high schoolers will be introduced to five AI pilot programs, while all high schoolers will have AI literacy classes to "help them think critically about AI before they begin to rely on it." The ban will apply for the 2026-27 school year, as Mamdani says the city will study the impacts of the tech tools on students.
"The tech industry wants us to believe that A.I.-powered early education is not only inevitable, but necessary. We do not see it that way," Mamdani said.
Los Angeles Unified School District meanwhile on Sept. 3 said it would ban most AI usage for all students on district devices this school year, reported the Los Angeles Times.
It's a sharp divergence from AI policy in recent years. The district in 2024 unveiled what it hailed as a "pioneering" generative AI chatbot named "Ed" and platform that could provide practice exercises for students' individualized goals and communicate with families in their native languages. Just months later Ed went belly-up amid turmoil with the company that helped create it, the LA Times reported.
Patchwork of rules, guidelines govern AI in K-12 schools
Generative AI tools like chatbots have only been around for a few years, but their popularity and usage has exploded, leaving schools and educators a mess of evolving school-related technology and concerns about academic integrity, screen use and socio-emotional well being of students to contend with.
Approaches around the country are inconsistent, from blanket bans to the embracing of AI with explicit instruction on its use. Research about long-term educational impacts traditionally takes years or even decades, Agnew said, making it tricky for decision-makers to balance data-driven choices with evolving technology.
"AI is the next huge obstacle in education," Sam Schaefer, a social studies teacher at Rufus King High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network.
At least 35 states have issued some kind of guidelines for the use or adoption of AI in their public schools, according to a tracker from AI for Education, which offers AI literacy training in education settings. States are passing laws requiring their education departments to create such guidance; Maryland, Idaho, Oklahoma and Virginia all added new laws this year, reported K-12 Dive.
Some of the common concerns addressed by the guidance include the privacy of student data being input into AI systems, the potential for cheating and emphasis on human input and verification. The guidelines often provide recommendations to districts rather than mandates.
Students in Boston's public schools starting in third grade have access to approved AI tools under teacher supervision, and in higher grades may see teachers encouraging AI into classwork, according to the district's AI guidelines.
"Students and staff must disclose when AI is used and explain, to the extent possible, how AI contributed to a decision or output," guidelines read.
Denver Public Schools in Colorado has banned the popular chatbot ChatGPT but authorizes students to use an educational AI platform, MagicSchool, reported 9 News.
"I use it in one way or another every single day in my classroom," 6th-grade math teacher Daniela DiDomizio told 9 News of AI.
How are students and teachers using AI?
A review of district policies around the country reveals acknowledgment that American children are being regularly exposed to AI in their lives outside of school, and may be using it on a daily basis. In school, they should be prepared for "the world of the future," Agnew said.
Research on AI in K-12 education settings is limited, but studies show that while immediate access to AI tools can improve performance, when the tools are taken away, outcomes erode, Agnew said. For example, a take-home five-paragraph essay could be completed in seconds by an AI chatbot, and could potentially see a good grade. But the same student tasked with a five-paragraph essay in class without AI won't have learned how to become a better essay writer.
The design of AI tools matters, Agnew said. General chatbots like ChatGPT that spit out answers may come at the expense of deeper thinking, while more "Socratic" and narrowly defined education tools engage students in problem-solving, he said. Students need "productive struggle," the process of working through a challenge, Agnew said.
"The worry right now is that with answer engines like general chatbots being freely accessible to students, that without proper structures in place, much of that productive struggle can be taken from students, so actually the learning process is removed," Agnew said.
Education-specific AI is embraced in some classrooms, with tools like MagicSchool and Khanmigo accepted as "teaching assistants." Some teachers told USA TODAY in 2025 that they encourage generative AI use to brainstorm topics for papers or to help edit and revise them; AI writing papers is always a no-no, however.
In Boston, 11-year-old student Enrique Ng told NPR affiliate WBUR he created an AI chatbot as part of an English class assignment that was programmed to help students relieve their homework stress.
In Westchester County, New York, AI tools are used to help English language learners or guide students' research. Caroline Qian, a fourth-grader, told the Rockland/Westchester Journal News, part of the USA TODAY Network, she uses it to ask questions when teachers aren't available.
“If you copy what AI gives you, that’s cheating,” Qian said. “But if you use it based on your knowledge and your own words, it’s not.”
It's not just students facing a sea of change due to AI. Teachers in many cases are becoming authorized to use AI tools in their work, along with school administrators.
Many of the policies reviewed by USA TODAY stressed human oversight when AI is used. Some said decisions around issues like discipline and qualification for special education plans cannot be made by AI.
One school district in Kentucky faced backlash from parents and community members who believed AI was used to create a number of educational resources found in this year's student planners, reported WDRB. A calendar and a periodic table in the planner contained garbled spellings. Kentucky was "Venecky." Louisiana was "Lookoong." South Carolina was "Sorth Cuanto."
Generative AI can be a great tool for teachers to cut down on the time they spend lesson planning, Agnew said. But tools like AI require skilled users, and district investments in teacher trainings amid already strained budgets.
Missouri fourth-grade teacher Mandy Traub told USA TODAY that AI can be useful for drafting permission slips or generating lists of spelling words.
"AI has its place," Traub said.
Contributing: Greta Cross, USA TODAY; Elena Metinidis, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Helu Wang, Rockland/Westchester Journal News
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bewildering new tech rules face students across US
