Florida adopts new statewide rules for responsible AI use from VPK classrooms through college
Tallahassee, Florida – Florida is putting new limits and requirements around the use of artificial intelligence in public education, with state officials adopting rules that will apply from prekindergarten through the Florida College System.
The Florida State Board of Education adopted the new rules on September 16, 2026, establishing requirements for school districts, charter school boards and Florida College System institutions. The state says the rules are intended to allow schools to use new technology while giving parents more information and control over how AI tools are used with students.
The framework covers educational technology more broadly, but artificial intelligence is at the center of the new policy. State officials say the goal is not to prevent schools from using AI. Instead, the rules are designed to make sure technology remains a support for teachers and parents rather than becoming a substitute for them.
“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.”
One of the main changes involves transparency. Schools and colleges will have to create policies explaining how AI and other educational technology are approved and used. Parents must be notified when an AI instructional tool is approved for use, including the name of the tool, the courses where it will be used and how students are expected to interact with it.
Parents will also have a choice. Under the new rules, they can decide whether their child uses an approved AI instructional tool or receives a non-AI alternative.
The rules include additional protections for younger students. Technology used from voluntary prekindergarten through fifth grade will face additional review to determine whether it is appropriate for the students’ ages and stages of development.
Florida is also placing restrictions on certain types of AI designed to interact with children. The new rules prohibit systems designed to meet a student’s social or emotional needs or to simulate companionship or an emotional relationship. They also prohibit anthropomorphic designs intended to draw students into interactions with a machine.
Another part of the framework deals with student information and monitoring. Schools and educational technology providers will not be allowed to use undisclosed behavior monitoring, social scoring or psychological profiling. Vendors are also prohibited from selling student data or using that information to train agentic models.
The state is also addressing academic integrity. Districts and colleges will have to establish clear expectations for how students can use AI in their academic work. The rules also require reporting when an AI agent compromises the integrity of district data systems.
Florida Commissioner of Education Henry Mack said the state’s approach is intended to make sure students learn how to use technology without becoming dependent on it.
“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 new rules come as schools and employers continue to adjust to the rapid growth of AI tools. Florida officials say students need to understand the technology because they will encounter it in the workplace, but they also need to maintain skills such as judgment, critical thinking and independent reasoning.
As part of the effort, Mack directed the Florida Department of Education to update the state’s K-12 Computer Science student standards. The changes are intended to help students understand appropriate uses of educational technology while continuing to emphasize critical thinking.
The department will also update the Florida Digital Classrooms Plan. The updated plan will provide additional direction for schools as they evaluate and purchase educational technology.
Under the new approach, districts will have to separate policies covering recreational technology use from those covering technology used for instruction. State officials said the distinction is important because a tool used for entertainment should not necessarily be judged in the same way as one being used to teach students.
Schools will also be expected to evaluate educational technology based on learning results and instructional value rather than simply measuring how much time students spend looking at a screen.
Before purchasing or renewing technology, districts will need to show how evidence of effectiveness supports those decisions. They will also have to review how technology is being implemented and consider its relationship to student performance.
Professional development for teachers is another part of the updated framework. Districts will need to identify the training teachers receive so educators understand how to use technology in ways that support classroom instruction instead of taking time and attention away from it.
State Board of Education Chair Ryan Petty said the rules are intended to establish clear responsibilities for districts and colleges as AI becomes more common in education.
“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.
The new framework applies across a wide section of Florida’s public education system, including students in VPK, K-12 schools and the Florida College System. It also covers students who are dual enrolled at Florida colleges, giving parents greater visibility into educational technology used as part of their children’s education.
Florida officials describe the policy as an attempt to combine the potential benefits of AI with safeguards around privacy, parental involvement and student learning.
The state is not eliminating artificial intelligence from classrooms. Instead, the new rules set conditions for how the technology can be introduced and used. Schools will have to explain what tools are being used, why they are being used and how students and teachers will interact with them.
At the same time, the rules place limits on AI systems that could act as companions, secretly monitor students or make use of their personal information in ways parents and schools have not approved.
The overall policy reflects Florida’s position that students should learn about AI while continuing to develop skills that depend on human judgment. The state says students should be ready for workplaces where AI is increasingly present, but that preparation should not come at the expense of independent thinking or the role of teachers and parents.
With the new rules, Florida is establishing a statewide framework that reaches from the earliest years of public education through college. The state’s approach places transparency, parental choice, privacy and demonstrated educational value at the center of decisions about how AI and other digital tools are used with students.
