US schools implement conflicting AI policies as districts ban chatbots for students

School districts across the United States are implementing highly conflicting artificial intelligence policies, creating a fragmented regulatory landscape. New York City and Los Angeles, the nation's two largest school districts, have enacted strict bans on student-facing generative AI tools for the 2026-27 school year. Meanwhile, other districts like Boston and Denver permit supervised or platform-specific AI use. These restrictions emerge as educators struggle to balance the risks of academic cheating against the potential benefits of AI tutoring, prompting some teachers to completely redesign their student assessment strategies.

New York City AI moratorium

• ▪New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative artificial intelligence tools for public school students through eighth grade for the 2026-27 school year.
• ▪New York City public high school students are exempt from the full artificial intelligence ban, with the city rolling out twice-yearly artificial intelligence literacy classes and supervised pilot programs.
• ▪The New York City public school artificial intelligence moratorium halts the use of approximately 40 educational artificial intelligence tools and bans companion chatbots across all grade levels.

Los Angeles district restrictions

• ▪Under the Los Angeles Unified School District restrictions, students cannot engage with Google's Gemini chatbot or use chatbot helpers inside Google Classroom software, including Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
• ▪The Los Angeles Unified School District announced it will restrict most student artificial intelligence usage on district devices for the 2026-27 school year while a board committee considers future integration.
• ▪The Los Angeles Unified School District previously launched a generative artificial intelligence chatbot named Ed in 2024, which failed months later due to turmoil with its developer.

Inconsistent state district policies

• ▪Boston Public Schools allow students starting in third grade to access approved artificial intelligence tools under teacher supervision, requiring disclosure of how the technology contributed to their work.
• ▪United States school districts are operating under a patchwork of inconsistent guidelines, with at least 35 to 37 states having issued some form of official artificial intelligence guidance for public schools.
• ▪Denver Public Schools banned the popular chatbot ChatGPT but authorized students to use an educational artificial intelligence platform called MagicSchool.

AI tutoring versus cheating

• ▪A study cited by Chris Agnew of Stanford University indicates that while immediate access to artificial intelligence tools can improve student performance, outcomes erode when those tools are removed.
• ▪Chris Agnew of Stanford University warned that general chatbots acting as answer engines can remove the productive struggle of learning from students if proper structures are not in place.

Teacher administrative AI use

• ▪A school district in Kentucky faced parent backlash after a calendar and periodic table in student planners, believed to be created using artificial intelligence, contained garbled spellings like Venecky for Kentucky.
• ▪School policies in New York City and other districts permit teachers to use artificial intelligence tools for administrative tasks, including lesson planning, scheduling, and drafting communications.

Assessment redesign strategies

• ▪Teachers and college professors are rethinking how they assess students, focusing on methods that force students to show they are learning rather than trying to detect chatbot-written essays.
• ▪Rachael Zeleny, director of the writing program at the University of Baltimore, recommended instructors use a free application called Brisk to avoid wasting time grading chatbot-written essays.

Debatable claims

• ▪Educators should redesign assessments rather than trying to detect AI-generated student work
• ▪Public schools should ban generative AI tools for elementary and middle school students