By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2026-09-04 01:06:28 | Updated at 2026-09-04 01:38:45
51 minutes ago
Los Angeles Unified just pulled the plug on student use of generative AI, and some school board members apparently didn’t see it coming.
The district has imposed a moratorium for the current school year, blocking students from using generative AI on district devices until further notice.
The surprise decision surfaced this week as a board committee began examining AI use in schools.
The biggest twist, the school board itself never approved the moratorium.
Senior district administrators imposed it on their own authority, saying the move was made in the spirit of the board’s unanimous June vote to limit student screen time.
Under that policy, students have no access to screens until second grade, with permitted screen use expanding as children get older.
Board member Kelly Gonez said she believed the district was still operating under its previous AI policy, which allowed older students to use the technology after completing instructional units on digital literacy and responsibility.
“I, even as a board member,” was “under the expectation that we were still operating under last year’s policy,” Gonez said during the inaugural meeting of the district’s new Generative AI Ad Hoc Committee. “The fact that it’s different today, this school year, is important.”
“Breaking news here in the committee,” she said.
Board Member Nick Melvoin was also caught off guard.
He did not object to the temporary ban itself, but questioned why such a major decision had not come from the board.
“If the policy is we’re not going to allow students [to] use generative AI for the meantime, then we should publicize that,” Melvoin said during the inaugural meeting of the district’s new Generative AI Ad Hoc Committee. “But also, that didn’t really come from the board, so I’m of two minds on that right now … just expressing some discomfort.”
The LAUSD move came as New York City announced its own AI crackdown.
The city will bar student-facing generative AI tools, including chatbots and prompt-based tutors, from preschool through eighth grade during the current school year.
The restriction affects nearly 600,000 students, while limited AI use will remain permitted in high schools.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels announced the New York policy.
At least 37 states have issued AI guidance for schools, but educators nationwide still lack a single definition of AI literacy or a consensus on how the technology should be taught.
Generative AI can produce new material by drawing on patterns in existing data.
But it can also generate wrong answers or take over work educators expect students to do themselves, including writing papers.
Some AI tools can even make those assignments look more student-written by adding errors or current slang.
LAUSD isn’t banning all AI.
Non-generative tools can still be used for education, including adaptive learning systems that change question difficulty based on performance and speech-recognition programs that assist with reading fluency or dictation.
AI can also help with text-to-speech, speech-to-text, live captioning and translation when academically appropriate.
Students can still Google things, too.
But Google’s “AI Mode” has been switched off on student accounts and devices, preventing students from having an AI conversation or asking follow-up questions.
Search pages may still display short AI-generated summaries.
“Google is working on a technical update that would allow administrators to turn that feature off completely,” a district spokesperson said.
LAUSD is facing a severe financial crisis, with county officials warning it could completely run out of operating cash by November 2027.
To avoid a state takeover and balance its books, the district has launched a three-year stabilization plan aimed at slashing $3.5 billion in spending through massive staff layoffs and school cuts by June 2029.
