Teens Draft a National AI Policy for Schools

BOSTON — While adult policymakers have struggled to agree on how artificial intelligence should be used in America’s classrooms, a group of teenagers has done what Congress has not: written a comprehensive national policy for AI in schools.

Ninety-eight high school students representing all 50 states convened over the weekend of July 17-19 at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston, where they debated, amended and overwhelmingly passed the “Students First Act,” a student-led framework for AI use in K-12 education, NPR reports. The final vote was 82-16.

The event, called America’s Youth AI Festival, was held as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations and hosted by AASA (The School Superintendents Association), Day of AI, MIT RAISE and the Edward M. Kennedy Institute. The students — selected by their school leaders through the 2026 Leadership and Innovation Fellowship — gathered in the institute’s full-scale replica of the U.S. Senate chamber, a venue that underscored the scale of the task.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to actually help and try to change the country for the better,” Gabriel Sutphin, a student senator from South Carolina, said from the chamber floor.

Context: A Policy Vacuum

The students’ achievement stands against a backdrop of adult gridlock. There is no national policy for AI use in K-12 schools, leaving states and districts to scramble to craft their own rules in the absence of regulation.

The teens were acutely aware of the stakes, pointing to how adult leaders were slow to protect students from the risks of social media and smartphones.

“We missed the mark with social media and phones,” said Hunter Wurzel, a high school senior from Ohio. “That’s been a huge talking point already [this weekend], is how we failed to implement those things into education and teach the youth how to use them.”

The organizers acknowledged that the adults’ failure to reach consensus created an opening for students.

“The adults themselves haven’t been able to come to consensus on this, right? And so now it falls to the kids. Let them lead the way,” said Jeffrey Riley, executive director of Day of AI and former Massachusetts education commissioner.

What the Students First Act Says

The bill’s student-focused section contains 15 provisions aimed at preventing teens from outsourcing their thinking to AI while still teaching them to use the technology responsibly.

Among the key provisions:

• Approved uses: Students should not be allowed to use AI for writing, though editing, brainstorming and studying with AI would be permitted after eighth grade.
• AI literacy: States should provide AI literacy instruction as soon as students get access to classroom devices, covering misinformation, plagiarism, bias in AI design, student privacy, appropriate academic use and AI’s environmental impact.
• Graded tests: AI use would be banned on all graded tests.
• Proving mastery: Students permitted to use AI should cite how they used it and demonstrate their grasp of a subject through discussions, handwritten tests or oral defenses.
• Plagiarism review: Suspected inappropriate AI use must be reviewed not just by AI-checker software — which can be unreliable — but also by two school officials.
• Federal funding: The bill calls on the federal government to help fund AI literacy instruction, a response to equity concerns about under-resourced schools.

The debate was intense. Campbell McHenry, a junior from Mississippi, warned of a future where students rely on AI instead of their own minds: “Everyone’s gonna stop learning and start relying on AI. Instead of using it as a tool, they’re gonna use it as a brain.”

Lucia Herrera of Missouri criticized an early draft that lacked a proficiency requirement, telling her subcommittee, “There’s nothing that says students need to be proficient before using it… Which I think is a misuse of it.”

That concern fed into the AI literacy requirement, which Bena Mejia Romero of Connecticut urged her fellow senators to support: “If we’re going to be using devices, we should know the dangers and the benefits that they have.”

The funding question sparked resistance. “Teachers already are pretty under-resourced,” noted Om Lala of California, while Tristan Tjetjep of Tennessee worried how “underprivileged schools” would pay for the new instruction. The students attempted to resolve the tension by requiring federal support.

Rules for Teachers and Parents

The bill also sets rules for educators. AI would be allowed for lesson planning, making practice materials, providing feedback and improving instruction. Teachers would have to post a clear, written AI usage policy each semester explaining when AI is allowed and when it is not. And if an AI detector flags a student paper, teachers “must personally investigate the issue before reporting the student to admin.”

The 10 provisions for parents and guardians are mostly advisory, encouraging balanced technology habits and ethical academic behavior at home. An early draft that gave parents a full veto over student AI access was removed after senators argued that AI is here to stay and students must be taught how to use it.

The students also wrestled with whether school chatbots should keep students’ confidences. Several worried about privacy for students in crisis, but Dylan Dornack of Iowa argued that the technology must alert a trusted adult. “This could be lifesaving,” he told the chamber, “whether or not that student is fearful that they might get outed.”

The compromise: when a school chatbot detects a student in need of emotional support, it should alert school officials rather than fulfill the request.

Analysis: A Rare Seat at the Policy Table

The bill is not binding law — the teens are not actual senators — but its influence could be significant. AASA plans to distribute the text to its members: more than 10,000 school leaders across the country, many of whom are currently crafting their own AI rules, according to AASA.

The passage marked a rare instance of students directly shaping real-world technology rules. As Bena Mejia Romero put it before the final vote: “This bill is about who gets a seat at the table. Today, students have that seat.”

The push reflects a broader argument that students should help design the AI-driven future they will inherit — a case made this spring by AASA Executive Director David R. Schuler and Jeffrey Riley, who wrote that “the next revolution in education should not be led by policymakers and pundits, but by students themselves” in The 74.

The bill was not without critics. Jadelynn Petitjean of Alabama called it an “unstable foundation,” and West Virginia’s Ethan Liu initially opposed it after highlighting internal contradictions, though he changed his vote after last-minute fixes, saying “this bill is in much better shape.”

Sarah Zahka of Florida acknowledged the imperfections while urging passage: “It is difficult to be the first students making changes that impact the entire nation… the only way to learn how to swim is ultimately to dive into those waters head first.”

What’s Next

With the Students First Act passed, attention now turns to whether districts will adopt, adapt or ignore the student-written framework. The full bill text is available from AASA.

Kendall Terao-Toma of Hawaii framed the stakes in a closing speech to her colleagues: “This is for our future — not just for education but for the workforce we will join, the economy that we will build and the communities we will lead.”

The question now is whether the adults charged with running America’s schools will listen.