Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Education is continuing to push for artificial intelligence use in classrooms through newly finalized priorities and definitions for districts and colleges applying for any of the agency’s discretionary grant programs.
- The department’s final rule, issued Monday, said it will prioritize applications for projects that aim to expand the understanding of AI or the appropriate and ethical use of AI in education.
- Within those parameters, proposals that call for integrating AI literacy skills into teaching and learning practices that improve student outcomes will be given more weight, according to the rule.
Dive Insight:
Under the new rule, which takes effect May 13, other AI grant priorities for K-12 include proposals to:
- Expand age-appropriate AI and computer science education offerings in schools.
- Embed AI and computer science lessons into teacher preparation programs.
- Provide professional development for educators to integrate AI into their subject areas.
- Offer dual-enrollment credit opportunities for high schoolers to earn college credits or industry credentials in AI.
- Use AI to support K-12 services, including early intervention and special education, for students with disabilities and their families.
- Integrate AI-driven tools into classrooms for personalized learning and to improve student outcomes. For example, this could be through adaptive learning technology, virtual teaching assistants, tutoring or data analytics tools on student progress.
- Use AI to reduce time-consuming administrative tasks.
- Use AI for high-quality instructional resources, high-impact tutoring, or exploring college and career pathways.
- Implement AI tools to improve program outcomes.
Some education technology leaders called for major changes to the proposed rule issued last July, such as creating a separate additional funding stream for AI education initiatives. The Education Department acknowledged those requests, but ultimately didn’t act on them in issuing the final rule.
In a comment on the proposed rule, Consortium for School Networking CEO Keith Krueger said the organization supported the focus on educator training, AI literacy and instructional integration. CoSN represents K-12 educational technology leaders across 2,050 school districts.
However, Krueger encouraged the department to consider a separate dedicated funding stream for AI initiatives “to ensure long-term sustainability and avoid reducing support for other critical programs.” CoSN also called on the department to develop or back an evaluation framework to help grant recipients vet AI tools for data privacy, evidence-based practices, accessibility and inclusivity, usability and interoperability.
Likewise, CoSN asked the Education Department to issue separate implementation guidance in addition to the new AI grant priorities. This guidance should focus on safe and responsible AI adoption, and should be “vendor-agnostic,” as well as flexible for a variety of district sizes and contexts to implement, the organization said.
Comments resulted in some minor changes to the final rule.
The department noted, for instance, that it added “the use of AI technology to improve program outcomes” as a priority in agreement with commenters who said AI can lead to efficiencies that can boost student outcomes.
In response to calls for the agency to develop an evaluation framework that would help schools vet AI tools for evidence-based practices, the final rule said the agency “will consider whether and how to use evidence components in each grant competition, consistent with program authority, where this priority is used.”
Though it made no changes as a result of those comments, the department added that “with any new and innovative practice or technology, building evidence to understand what works is important in the use of AI in education.”
The department’s final rule comes at a time of disjointed AI implementation across school districts nationwide.
For instance, lawmakers and witnesses at a February House subcommittee hearing said teachers need more support for professional development on AI tools to safely and effectively use the technology for student learning. Democratic lawmakers, however, said it’s harder to dedicate federal resources toward such efforts since the Trump administration shuttered the Education Department’s Office of Educational Technology in 2025.
Meanwhile, education leaders at district and state levels are advising superintendents to revamp how they think about rolling out AI tools. They might, for example, create AI leadership roles at the district level, integrate AI responsibilities into existing district teams, or distribute ownership across the whole school system, said several K-12 leaders during a March 30 webinar held by the ILO Group.
Meanwhile, Gen Z’s views on AI are increasingly negative, according to a recent survey from Gallup, the Walton Family Foundation and GSV Ventures. Still, even though a majority of Gen Z K-12 students said AI “will make learning more difficult in the future,” they were more likely than Gen Z adults to use AI at least weekly.
The survey also found that more students said their schools are implementing AI rules — 74% in 2026, up from 51% in 2025.
