TALLAHASSEE — On Wednesday, the Florida Board of Education unanimously approved new rules for artificial intelligence in public schools and state colleges, requiring districts to get parental consent before students use AI tools and barring the technology from serving as a companion or grading work in secret.
Local School districts and charter schools must amend their internet safety policies to cover AI and finish the work by July 1, 2027, in time for the 2027-28 school year. The School District of Indian River County has already begun updating its Code of Student Conduct to develop specific procedures addressing student AI 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.
Districts must notify parents when an AI instructional tool is approved, including the product’s name, which classes will use it, and how students will interact with it. Parents must opt in. If they decline, the district has to provide a non-AI alternative of similar instructional quality.
The youngest students face the strictest limits. Any AI used in VPK through fifth grade must get an added review to confirm it is appropriate for that age.
The board also barred companion-style programs. Schools cannot use AI to address a child’s social or emotional needs or to simulate a friendship. Secret monitoring of student behavior is prohibited, as are social scoring and psychological profiling.
Student data stays off the commercial market. Vendors cannot sell it, profile it or feed it into their own AI models. Schools also have to be able to shut a program down on their own. Staff cannot be stuck waiting on the vendor to flip a switch.
Kids are not supposed to run autonomous AI tools without an adult in the room. And when districts pick a vendor, the state wants them to lean toward companies that store and process the data in the United States.
Teachers and administrators must have training on AI risks, limitations, and safety requirements.
“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.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis praised the vote: “Florida will not outsource childhood to a chatbot,” he said. “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.”
A separate rule covers the 28 institutions in the Florida College System. Boards of trustees must adopt policies that address academic integrity, approved tools, privacy, copyright, and AI literacy. Students may not use AI on graded assignments or assessments unless the instructor explicitly allows it. Colleges must notify parents when an enrolled minor will use an AI instructional tool.
Mack described AI as a supplement, not a replacement. “It doesn’t supplant. It’s complimentary,” he said. “The rule that you accepted is not a prohibition. It empowers faculty to decide what to do.”
The rules apply to traditional public schools and charter schools. Private schools are not covered. State universities fall under a separate board and were not part of Wednesday’s action.
Mack directed the Department of Education to update K-12 computer science standards and the state’s digital classrooms plan so districts judge technology by learning outcomes rather than screen time.