For the second time this week, a major public school system has barred students from using most generative artificial intelligence. But the ban imposed by the Los Angeles Unified School District goes much further than the one put in place on Wednesday by New York City’s public schools.
The Los Angeles district, the second-largest in the nation, restricted access to AI for students in all grades for the 2026-27 school year.
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The move follows a school board vote in June to limit students’ screen time in classrooms. Under that new policy, students are not given access to screens until second grade, then their allowed time with screens gradually increases in successive grades.
The AI moratorium was announced Wednesday by senior administrators at the first meeting of the district’s Generative AI Ad Hoc Committee. The committee’s job is to develop recommendations by the end of this school year for guardrails and procedures for students to use AI tools in the future, according to K-12 Dive.
How is LA’s policy different from NYC’s?
New York’s ban on AI in schools was considered the most restrictive in the nation until the LA policy came to light.
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The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest, had 497,105 students enrolled for the 2025–26 school year.
Under New York’s moratorium, kids in preschool through eighth grade are banned from using generative AI in schools. High schoolers will only be able to use certain “rigorously vetted education AI programs” under direct teacher supervision and for no more than 45 minutes per week. They’re also required to take AI literacy courses twice a school year.
LA’s new policy is a total moratorium for all grades.
According to The New York Times, LA students will still see AI summaries at the top of the page during a Google search, but they won’t be able to use the company’s chatbot, Gemini. They also won’t be able to use the chatbots included with Google’s classroom software, including Google Docs.
Before this policy was put into place, students 13 and older were allowed to use generative AI tools after completing a digital citizenship course, The Washington Post reported.
The AI ban applies only to district-owned devices. However, the district’s interim chief information officer, Douglas Le, told the Los Angeles Times that a student’s activity can be tracked if they use AI on their personal device while logged into their district account.
Reactions to the ban
Nicholas Melvoin, a school board member who’s part of the AI committee, told the Times that the board was surprised by district officials’ decision to fully ban its use for all students. While he led the push to restrict students’ screen time, he raised concerns about banning AI use even for older students, saying teenagers need to understand the technology to prepare for college and the workplace.
“High school is where I would have more teacher discretion, with guardrails,” Melvoin said.
One parent, Bridie Lee, told the Times she attended Wednesday’s meeting to call for an AI moratorium, but was pleased to find it already in place.
“Thank you to the team for listening to the evidence, the facts, and perhaps our work here is done,” Lee, a leader of the group Schools Beyond Screens LA, told the school board.
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