Schools hedge their bets on AI as concerns grow among parents

Schools are struggling to keep up with the evolving world of AI as concerns among parents and advocates mount regarding the use of the technology in classrooms.

The two largest school districts in the country have put a one-year moratorium on generative AI usage in the classroom amid worries about privacy and its effect on learning.

While there have been mixed reactions to the pause, there is consensus that schools need to find solutions quickly as students use AI at home and could eventually run into it in the workplace.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) said public schools serving kindergarten through eighth grade will not be allowed to use AI for at least one year. Only select high school classrooms will be allowed to use AI pilot platforms, and high schoolers will take two AI critical thinking classes this academic year.

“The tech industry wants us to believe that AI in early education is not only inevitable, but that it is necessary. We do not see it that way,” Mamdani said.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has also implemented an AI moratorium for the 2026-27 school year.

“I really am applauding districts and schools for being able to address this in a way that’s putting our kids’ safety and protecting them and putting them front and center in the conversation right now,” said Yvette Renteria, chief program officer at Common Sense Media.

“My hope is that, you know, when we say there’s a pause … that the reality is that work doesn’t stop. We should be engaging all the stakeholders, forming committees … bringing teachers together, bringing parents together, bringing organizations and students together to really understand what is happening in the homes, what’s happening in schools, and what does that look like,” Renteria added.

This is not the first time AI has received a chilly reception from school districts.

In 2023, many across the country banned AI as students began to use the technology to cheat, and educators were struggling with how to combat it.

As more AI detection tools came out, albeit with their own share of troubles, tensions died down and many districts allowed teachers to come up with their own policies around AI use.

But the fears have returned in force with the growing focus on AI data centers, Flock cameras and warnings from those in the tech industry about AI’s dominance in the future .

“In schools, you’re sort of caught in this situation where parents are increasingly forming an opinion about AI, and it’s a blanket opinion. It’s not necessarily, ‘Oh, I’m against AI in these contexts,’ or, ‘I support AI in other contexts,’” said Alex Kotran, CEO of the AI Education Project, which works to advance AI literacy and readiness in schools.

“You look at the public comments that were submitted in New York City … a lot of the folks who wrote in weren’t writing about a specific ed tech tool,” Kotran said, adding parents were concerned about data centers or AI’s impact on the environment.

“AI has become a sort of blanket term, and I don’t know that parents are necessarily at a place where they are distinguishing the two. And I think that’s in part because the education community has done a relatively … let’s just say there’s room for improvement in how folks who work in the education space can communicate about AI to parents,” he added.

Even with bans in schools, students in many cases are still using the technology at home.

Common Sense Media found 70 percent of students said they use AI tools for schoolwork, although 65 percent said they try to solve problems themselves first or ask someone for help before turning to AI.

And if not at home or school, eventually many students will run into AI in the workforce, which is why districts engaging in a pause in AI are approaching it differently for older and younger students.

“This is not a pause that turns into avoidance, and so this is the year you’re studying the evidence. You’re, again, training educators. You’re establishing the guardrails and policies that didn’t really exist, and you’re determining where does AI expand access without replacing students’ thinking,” said Tameka Royal, the CEO of Democracy Prep Public Schools, a system of charter schools in New York City.

“The push here is, for our high school students, the lessons to be about what are the tools and how do I use them responsibly and to really help elevate and enhance the work that I’m doing,” she added. “And then for our youngest students, it’s the taking a pause to truly understand what it means for them.”