The Los Angeles Unified School District board has created a dedicated committee to reassess how artificial intelligence tools are employed by students, teachers and schools.
The group held its first session on Wednesday, with members tasked to produce policy suggestions for a possible full-board vote next year.
Committee chair Kelly Gonez said success would mean acting proactively to shield students while readying them for life after graduation: “I think that success will look like, in a quickly changing world, knowing that we are being proactive to protect our students and safeguard their health, their wellbeing, and their development first and foremost. But also ensuring that we are truly preparing our students for the world that they will emerge into once they graduate from our schools.”
Current district rules allow students 13 and older to use AI tools when directed by a teacher and after completing a digital-citizenship lesson, according to LAist.
The committee was formed alongside June approval of student screen-time limits and includes board members Nick Melvoin and Tanya Ortiz Franklin in addition to Gonez.
A parent group that backed the screen-time measures is urging a full moratorium on student AI access until more evidence emerges about educational value.
Anya Meksin, deputy director of Schools Beyond Screens and parent of an LAUSD elementary student, said the existing approach should be replaced: “I think the current policy needs to be discarded completely, and we need to start from scratch with the foundational question of what is the benefit of these tools in education?”
This report is based on coverage by LAist: https://laist.com/news/education/lausd-ai-committee-first-meeting-tech-in-schools