{"slug": "lausd-drops-hammer-on-ai-technology-in-schools-with-shocking-decision-to-board", "title": "LAUSD drops hammer on AI technology in schools with shocking decision to board members", "summary": "Los Angeles Unified School District has imposed a moratorium on student use of generative AI on district devices for the current school year, a decision made by senior administrators without board approval. Board members Kelly Gonez and Nick Melvoin expressed surprise and discomfort over the unilateral move, which aligns with the board's June vote to limit screen time. The district's action follows New York City's announcement to bar student-facing generative AI tools for nearly 600,000 students in preschool through eighth grade.", "body_md": "# LAUSD drops hammer on AI technology in schools with shocking decision to board members\n\nSee more of our coverage in your search results.\n\n[Add The California Post on Google](https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=nypost.com)\n\nLos Angeles Unified just [pulled the plug](https://nypost.com/2026/04/21/us-news/lausd-takes-drastic-measure-to-limit-student-screen-time/) on student use of generative AI, and some school board members apparently didn’t see it coming.\n\nThe district has imposed a moratorium for the current school year, blocking students from [using generative AI ](https://nypost.com/2026/09/03/business/chatgpt-claude-and-gemini-are-all-down-as-thousands-of-users-experience-outages/)on district devices until further notice.\n\nThe surprise decision surfaced this week as a board committee began examining AI use in schools.\n\nThe biggest twist, the school board itself never approved the moratorium.\n\nSenior 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.\n\nUnder that policy, students have no access to screens until second grade, with permitted screen use expanding as children get older.\n\nBoard 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.\n\n“I, even as a board member,” was “under the expectation that we were still operating under last year’s policy,” Gonez said, according to [the LA Times](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-09-02/lausd-student-ai-ban-policy). “The fact that it’s different today, this school year, is important.”\n\n“Breaking news here in the committee,” she said.\n\nBoard Member Nick Melvoin was also caught off guard.\n\nHe did not object to the temporary ban itself, but questioned why such a major decision had not come from the board.\n\n“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. “But also, that didn’t really come from the board, so I’m of two minds on that right now … just expressing some discomfort.”\n\nThe LAUSD move came [as New York City announced its own AI crackdown](https://nypost.com/2026/09/03/opinion/nycs-ai-in-schools-policy-is-first-step-in-prying-children-away-from-the-grips-of-big-tech-it-may-come-just-in-time/).\n\nThe city will bar student-facing generative AI tools, including chatbots and prompt-based tutors, from preschool through eighth grade during the current school year.\n\nThe restriction affects nearly 600,000 students, while limited AI use will remain permitted in high schools.\n\nMayor Zohran Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels announced the New York policy.\n\nAt 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.\n\nGenerative AI can produce new material by drawing on patterns in existing data.\n\nBut it can also generate wrong answers or take over work educators expect students to do themselves, including writing papers.\n\nSome AI tools can even make those assignments look more student-written by adding errors or current slang.\n\nLAUSD isn’t banning all AI.\n\nNon-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.\n\nAI can also help with text-to-speech, speech-to-text, live captioning and translation when academically appropriate.\n\nStudents can still Google things, too.\n\nBut 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.\n\nSearch pages may still display short AI-generated summaries.\n\n“Google is working on a technical update that would allow administrators to turn that feature off completely,” a district spokesperson said.\n\nLAUSD is facing[ a severe financial crisis](https://nypost.com/2026/07/09/us-news/los-angeles-county-issues-45-day-deadline-over-lausd-budget-crisis/), with county officials warning it could completely run out of operating cash by November 2027.\n\nTo 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.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/lausd-drops-hammer-on-ai-technology-in-schools-with-shocking-decision-to-board", "canonical_source": "https://nypost.com/2026/09/03/us-news/lausd-blocks-student-access-to-generative-ai-on-district-devices/", "published_at": "2026-09-04 00:47:29+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-04 00:53:17.314738+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Los Angeles Unified School District", "Kelly Gonez", "Nick Melvoin", "New York City", "Zohran Mamdani", "Kamar Samuels", "Google"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/lausd-drops-hammer-on-ai-technology-in-schools-with-shocking-decision-to-board", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/lausd-drops-hammer-on-ai-technology-in-schools-with-shocking-decision-to-board.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/lausd-drops-hammer-on-ai-technology-in-schools-with-shocking-decision-to-board.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/lausd-drops-hammer-on-ai-technology-in-schools-with-shocking-decision-to-board.jsonld"}}