Florida Board of Education Approves Sweeping AI Regulations for Public Schools

The Florida Board of Education approved new, sweeping rules regulating the use of artificial intelligence in Florida's public schools, colleges and universities — for students and teachers — at its meeting Wednesday.

The rules are meant to safeguard against possible harms of AI use in education, such as social harms, students outsourcing their own thinking to machines, privacy and more.

Perhaps the most important new rule is a requirement for schools to allow parents who want to limit their child's access to AI to opt out if the school plans to have students directly use an AI tool. The rule doesn't stop at just giving them that option; it also requires parents who want their child to access the tool to opt in.

An "alternative, non-artificial intelligence instructional tool" must be made available to those who opt out.

Board members and commenters noted at the board meeting, held at Polk State College, that the rules still allow AI tools deemed helpful to learning but provide necessary guardrails.

Though the rules crack down on AI use more than many other states, they are not as strict as new rules put forth by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose administration just banned AI from educational uses for students up to 8th grade for one year.

"We are exercising the virtue of prudence here. We are neither going to one extreme – i.e., banning AI – nor are we going to the other extreme, which is just unfettered access," Florida Education Commissioner Henry Mack said.

Under the new rules, K-12 schools are also explicitly banned from deploying AI applications designed to meet students' social or emotional needs, which includes technology that is meant to simulate friendship with the user.

Another change made to the rule shortly before its passage was additional regulations around "agentic" AI, which is a type of AI that uses "agents" to operate autonomously in the digital world. Under that change, adult supervision, a log of activity and the ability for instructors to disable the tool would be required for students to use such a tool.

AI tools slated for use in preK-5 classrooms are subject to "additional review to ensure content is age and developmentally appropriate," under the rule.

The rules also effect teachers' use of AI. For example, teachers are now prohibited from using AI as "a decision maker, absent human review" in the case of grading, evaluations, referrals and more.

The rules apply to traditional public schools and charter schools. Private schools, including ones that have fully embraced AI like Miami's Alpha School, are not affected. School districts and charter school governing boards must adopt the guidelines by July 1, 2027.

Carole Gauronskas, vice president of the Florida Education Association, said she "loved" that the board was bringing forward such a measure.

"I love that this has come forward and the guidelines that have been set in place. AI will impact every one of our children, from pre-K through 12th grade through higher ed, and guardrails have to be put in place to make sure that it's done safely," Gauronskas said.

At the same meeting, the board also approved AI regulations for college students in Florida. Officials said that many Florida postsecondary institutions already had their own rules around AI's use in place, but the new rule would ensure consistency across the state.

The regulations for colleges and universities include a provision banning AI use on graded assignments unless the instructor explicitly permits it.

Additionally, parents of minors enrolled in Florida public colleges or universities must be notified when their child directly uses an AI tool.