By Staff Report
The Florida Board of Education on Wednesday, September 16 approved rules governing the use of artificial intelligence in K-12 public schools and state colleges.
At a meeting at Polk State College in Winter Haven, the board approved policies requiring school districts to amend their internet safety regulations to address AI and requiring state colleges to establish limitations on its use.
“Artificial intelligence is already in the classroom, and the rules before you today are about keeping Florida in front, rather than reacting,” Education Commissioner Henry Mack said.
In K-12 schools, districts will be required to notify parents if their child will be using an AI product. Parental consent will be required for AI use, and districts will have to offer an alternative, non-AI instructional tool of similar instructional quality if a parent does not allow a child to use AI.
School districts must finalize the policies by July 1, 2027, for the 2027-28 school year.
For the state’s 28 institutions in the Florida College System, colleges will be required to adopt policies on AI “to ensure quality of education for students, efficiency of operations, and a safe learning environment for the whole college community.”
Those policies must prohibit students from using AI to complete graded assignments or assessments unless explicitly permitted by the instructor.
“AI is an enhancement. It’s a supplement. It doesn’t supplant. It’s complimentary,” Mack said. “The rules before you today elevate that in a very nuanced way. It’s a difficult conversation.”
For school districts, any AI used in pre-K through fifth grade will have to undergo an additional review for approval. AI instructional tools also cannot be used to meet a student’s social or emotional needs, simulate an emotional relationship with a student, or use relationship-building or anthropomorphic design features to encourage a student to interact with the AI product.
The AI tools also cannot subject students to undisclosed behavior monitoring, social scoring or psychological profiling.
Teachers and administrators will be required to undergo training regarding AI risks, limitations, safety and compliance, and students will not be allowed to use AI without supervision. School personnel also must be able to immediately suspend or disable an AI product without vendor assistance.
Districts must prioritize vendors that keep student data within the United States, and vendors cannot sell, monetize, profile or commercially exploit student data to train commercial AI models.
“We are exercising the virtue of prudence here,” Mack said. “We are neither going to one extreme, i.e. banning AI, nor are we going to the other extreme, which is unfettered access, so there’s real value in what we’re presenting today.”
GARRETT VALCOURT 
AMBER PATINO