As most Central Florida students begin a new school year next week, Artificial Intelligence is heading back to the classroom, too.
But AI is getting some more guardrails. For years, the conversation around its usage was primarily about what students couldn’t do with it. Now some Central Florida districts are spending more time figuring out where it fits into a student’s learning.
Orange County Public Schools and other districts are implementing new policies as AI becomes more common in classrooms.
“It’s like building a plane while we’re flying,” said Orange County District 2 School Board Member Maria Salamanca during last week’s school board meeting, when the policy was approved. “It’s moving so quickly, and I think that this board, above all else, mostly cares about safety and guardrails.”
The board gathered input by surveying teachers and parents. They received about 20,000 responses that went into the development of its new policy. School board members also held town halls with students as they worked on the new guidelines
Under the new rules, students can use AI for things like background research before an assignment or paper, but they cannot use it to produce work they submit for a grade unless they have written permission from their instructor. Teachers are also expected to give students written guidelines for how AI can be used effectively in their classrooms.
Other districts are taking their own approaches. The details vary by district, but AI is no longer an automatic “no” in schools. Instead, districts are trying to put guardrails around how it is used.
In Seminole County, students have access to district-approved AI tools. The district also offers AI courses at Crooms Academy of Information Technology and Hagerty High School, where students study topics including machine learning, data analysis, AI systems and the technology’s impact on society.
In Brevard County Schools, the policy requires administrator approval before AI tools are used, and students and teachers must fact-check the information they receive.
The policy passed in July, but not everyone was on board.
“The AI world makes me extremely uncomfortable. I don’t like it, and that’s part of my age,” District 1 Brevard County School Board Chair Megan Wright said during a board workshop. “I think there’s a lot of confusion in this policy, too.”
The policy also calls for protecting students’ personal information and states AI use should be research-based. Superintendent Mark Rendell said students can use AI to help with research and improve a rough draft, but not to write a paper for them.
The brain behind the bot
Permission or not, some students have already turned to AI for some of their work.
A 2025 Pew Research Center survey found that 54% of U.S. teens have used AI chatbots to get help with schoolwork, while 57% have used them to find information. About four-in-ten say they have used chatbots to research a topic or solve a math problem, and 35% have used them to edit something they wrote.
For some students, AI is doing more than helping with one part of an assignment. One in 10 teens say they do all or most of their schoolwork with help from chatbots. And 59% say students at their school use AI to cheat at least sometimes.
There are concerns with the usage of AI and developing brains. Young people are increasingly using AI for tasks that require them to research, solve problems, write and revise, the same skills they are supposed to be building through schoolwork.
So even with guardrails, some experts are worried about what happens when AI becomes the first place a student turns when something gets difficult.
Jennifer Katzenstein is co-director of the Center for Behavioral Health at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. She studies how children’s brains affect their thinking and behavior, and how that can shape their everyday lives at home and at school.
She said a child's frontal lobe is still developing well into their 20s, and it needs certain exercises to build skills like problem-solving and emotional control.
“Sometimes when they're using AI, that opportunity is missed because they put in a question and an elaborate answer is put forward that sometimes we trust and don't read over,” Katzenstein said. “We also don't have the opportunity to really sit, problem solve, gather information, weigh different outcomes, weigh the evidence, and really develop that overall critical thinking and understanding.”
That is where the idea of “cognitive offloading” comes in. People offload mental work all the time, using a calculator for math or a calendar to remember an appointment.
“Our brains are wired to kind of take the most straightforward path, the one of least resistance to get to an answer,” she said. “For me, it's making 100 different lists around my office, I take that information out of my brain and put it out somewhere externally, I still have to problem solve and work through that information later.”
AI can do something similar, taking on parts of the work that would otherwise require a student to remember and reason with a problem on their own.
“If you're offloading something to make a list so that you don't forget, or even to journal to emotionally get out something that might be weighing or pressing on you, that's a great coping strategy,” she said. “They're not offloading the higher level task of problem solving, critical thinking that you are when you're using something like AI.”
AI can support student work by offering feedback or another way to approach a problem. It can also generate answers or written responses, depending on how students use the technology. The amount of work students do themselves can differ based on how they use AI and the guidelines schools have in place.
For neuropsychologists, that distinction matters because children are still building the cognitive skills they will rely on long after they leave the classroom. However, Katzenstein said that as a neuropsychologist, and a mom, AI is the future.
“We can't escape it and success in the future in different job roles, career paths, you know, future utilization of how you manage your home likely will have some level of AI components,” she said. “It's most important that we're teaching our kids to be appropriate consumers and to know how to use the amazing technology at their fingertips appropriately.”
Where parents fit in
As AI becomes more common in classrooms, decisions about how it is used are not falling only to teachers and school districts. Parents may also have a role to play, both in teaching kids how to use AI responsibly at home and, eventually, in deciding how it is used at school.
Governor Ron DeSantis has pushed for statewide AI regulations, including protections for children and their data, but a proposed “AI Bill of Rights” did not pass the Florida legislature earlier this year.
The Florida Department of Education is currently working on its own set of rules for schools. Under the proposed policy directive, districts and charter schools would have to update their internet safety policies to specifically address AI.
That would add another layer of guardrails as districts continue developing their own policies, but as of now, the proposal does not give parents a statewide right to opt their children out of AI.
Here is what each Central Florida school district is doing with AI for the 2026-27 school year
Orange County
- New districtwide policy as of July 2026.
- Use of district-approved AI for those purposes can be allowed with prior documented approval from an educator, and students must disclose the authorized use.
- Teachers must spell out AI rules for their classes and notify parents.
- Instructional staff has yet to return for the school year, and discussions will continue between leadership and staff on how AI can be used by students and staff.
- Parents do not have an opt-out yet.
You can view the full guideline here.
Brevard County
- New districtwide policy adopted July 2026.
- Teachers and staff need approval before using AI tools.
- Students can use AI for research and brainstorming, but not to complete assignments.
- Personal student information cannot be entered into AI systems, and AI-generated content must be checked for accuracy.
You can view Brevard’s guidelines here.
Seminole County
- Expanding three approved AI tools, Microsoft Copilot Chat, Google Gemini Chat and NotebookLM, to students and teachers.
- The tools include safeguards and are designed to guide students rather than simply provide answers.
- AI-generated work can be considered plagiarism.
You can view more in the student code of conduct.
Osceola County
- AI is allowed, not banned. The district says it wants employees and students to use AI in an ethical and educational way.
- AI should support, not replace, student work. The policy says AI is not a substitute for human creativity, judgment or original work.
- Students can use AI for learning support, including clarifying information, explaining concepts and generating ideas for assignments, unless a teacher prohibits it.
- Students must fact-check AI. The policy warns that AI can produce inaccurate or biased information and requires students to verify claims with primary or official sources.
- Students must disclose AI use in schoolwork, including AI-generated text, images or other multimedia.
You can view more in the policy here.
Volusia County
- Volusia adopted its AI policy in 2024, allowing AI for uses such as research, tutoring, lesson planning and personalized learning.
- Students still must do their own work, and unauthorized AI use can be considered cheating.
- For 2026-27, the district is focusing on training through its Volusia AI Academy, including professional development on district-approved AI tools.
You can view more of the policy here.
Marion County
- The district is expanding AI education, including a new Artificial Intelligence Foundations program at South Marion High School.
- Marion County Public Schools expects students to submit their own work unless a teacher specifically directs them to use artificial intelligence.
- The district's student conduct rules say submitting AI-generated work in place of original student work can fall under cheating and plagiarism.
- The district also began developing a dedicated AI policy in 2024.
You can view more of the policy here.
Flagler County
- Flagler reported that 98% of faculty and staff use AI, with nearly half using it daily.
- Students in grades 6-12 have access to tools including Gemini, Khanmigo and NotebookLM, while elementary use is more limited and teacher-directed.
- The district is emphasizing AI literacy, privacy and academic integrity, while investing heavily in teacher training.
You can view more of the policy here under po5136.01.
Sumter County
- No standalone generative-AI policy yet.
- Students are expected to learn about artificial intelligence, including machine learning, natural language processing, robotics and how computers can demonstrate intelligent behavior. The standards span from elementary grades through high school.
You can view more about their technology board notes here.
