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School districts across the United States are heading into the 2026-27 academic year with a wave of new artificial intelligence policies, as states and local boards move away from the outright bans that characterized the early ChatGPT era toward more structured governance frameworks.
Multiple state legislatures have advanced AI-in-education bills this year. Ohio and Tennessee now require every district to adopt a formal AI policy, while Oklahoma's SB 1734 requires educator supervision of AI use in the classroom along with disclosure to parents. In New York, a proposed bill would limit classroom AI use to grade nine and above, carving out exceptions for diagnostic assessments and special education support.
Large districts remain split on approach. New York City's public schools, the country's largest system, have left AI tool decisions mostly to individual teachers. Los Angeles Unified has built AI literacy directly into grades six through twelve. Chicago Public Schools has leaned toward AI-detection software paired with mandatory teacher training, while some districts — including Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, which banned AI outright in 2023 — are only now finalizing their first formal policies.
At the university level, several major institutions have gone the opposite direction on detection technology, turning off AI-detection features in tools like Turnitin over concerns about false positives affecting non-native English speakers, even as many of the same schools sign campus-wide licensing deals for AI platforms.
Teachers' unions, including the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, continue to push for policies that preserve educator discretion, protect student data, and route AI-related changes through collective bargaining. Legislative trackers expect an even larger volume of AI-in-education bills when state sessions resume in 2027.
