Florida Sets National Standard for Responsible AI in Classrooms—From VPK Through College

September 16, 2026

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Florida Sets National Standard for Responsible AI in Classrooms—From VPK Through College

New State Board rules put parents in charge, ban companion artificial intelligence, protect student data, and keep teachers—not chatbots—at the center of learning

Tallahassee, Fla., September 16, 2026 - Today, the Florida State Board of Education adopted new rules governing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and educational technology in Florida’s school districts, charter school boards, and Florida College System institutions—creating one of the most comprehensive, parent-centered AI frameworks in the country.

While many states have issued guidance, Florida is acting with binding rules that run the full pipeline of public education. The rules do not ban innovation; they require that innovation serves and protects students by acting as an additional support for teachers and parents, not replacing them. The rules protect parental rights, safeguard student privacy, and ensure teachers and professors are prepared to appropriately use educational technology. They also establish greater transparency, so parents are fully informed about the educational technology tools students are using in the classroom, including students who are dual enrolled at Florida colleges.

“Florida will not outsource childhood to a chatbot,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “We welcome tools that help teachers teach and students learn. We will not accept tools that hide from parents, harvest student data, grade kids in secret, or pretend to be a friend. In this state, a teacher stands in front of the class, a parent has the last word, and a student still has to think.”

Districts, charter school boards, and Florida College System institutions must adopt transparent policies governing AI and other educational technologies. At minimum, those policies must notify parents when an AI instructional tool is approved—including the name of the tool, the courses involved, and how the students will interact with it; give the parents the choice to opt their child into using the AI instructional tool or to receive a non-AI alternative; subject tools used in VPK through grade 5 to additional review for age and developmental appropriateness; prohibit AI designed to meet a student’s social or emotional needs, simulate companionship or an emotional relationship, or use anthropomorphic design to pull students into interaction with a machine; prohibit undisclosed behavior monitoring, social scoring, and/or psychological profiling; prohibit vendors from selling student data or using it to train agentic models; and set clear expectations for academic integrity and compel reporting if an AI agent compromises the integrity of district data systems.

“An educated person can use a powerful tool without becoming dependent on it. That is the line Florida is drawing,” said Florida Commissioner of Education Henry Mack. “AI belongs in a classroom when it sharpens instruction, elevates or enhances the learning experience, protects privacy, and leaves the student’s own mind stronger than it found it. It does not belong in a classroom when it writes the essay, scores the child in secret, offers itself as a companion, or coopts the intellectual virtue of critical thinking. We are preparing Floridians for an AI economy. We are not raising a generation that outsources judgment or rationality.”

The rules treat AI as a workforce reality, not as a classroom fad. Students will be expected to understand how to use emerging tools appropriately and responsibly, while maintaining the critical thinking, judgment, and human formation that no algorithm can replace.

In addition to the adoption of the new rules, Commissioner Mack directed the Florida Department of Education to update Florida’s K-12 Computer Science student standards to ensure students understand the appropriate use of educational technology while protecting critical thinking.

Commissioner Mack also directed the Department to update the Florida Digital Classrooms Plan to strengthen how educational technology is evaluated and used across Florida schools. Informed by the U.S. Department of Education’s August 20, 2026, Dear Colleague Letter on the responsible use of education technology, districts will be required to:

• Distinguish between policies addressing recreational technology use and those governing instructional technology.
• Evaluate educational technology based on demonstrated learning outcomes and instructional value, not screen time.
• Demonstrate how evidence of effectiveness drives procurement and renewal decisions.
• Review the implementation of educational technology against student performance.
• Identify the professional learning teachers receive so technology supports instruction instead of crowding it out.

“Boards exist to protect the conditions of real learning. These rules do that. They tell every district and college in Florida: publish the tools, tell the parents, keep the records, prove the instructional value, and do not let a vendor turn a child into training data. Innovation without those conditions is not leadership. It is abdication,” said State Board of Education Chair Ryan Petty.

Florida’s message is simple: the state will not choose between innovation and humanity. Students will be prepared for an AI-driven economy. They will not be trained by it, profiled by it, befriended by it, or replaced by it.

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