TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – New York City Schools, the nation’s largest school district, will discontinue use of dozens of AI programs it previously allowed for students before they reach high school. It’s the latest move in a growing debate between educators and technology.
Locally, districts are taking a different approach.
At Washington Local Schools, the policy depends largely on a student’s age. The district said AI is a tool students will need to understand, but not at the expense of learning how to think and create for themselves.
“The human brain is what we need to develop and make sure that students know how to utilize and creating their own thoughts and their own paragraphs, if you will, and their own responses,” said Jennifer Bronickowski, assistant superintendent at Washington Local Schools.
Washington Local Schools calls it a human-first approach. Kindergarten through second grade students don’t use student-facing AI. In third and fourth grade, they start learning about AI without relying on it for day-to-day work.
Bronickowski said as students get older, the rules change.
“They’re growing up in a different world than we are, and we just want to make sure that they’re prepared. They have to know what AI is, they have to know the pitfalls with AI, so the pros and cons that come with it,” Bronickowski said.
For assignments, teachers can use an AI usage scale spelling out how much, if any, AI students can use.
“So our teachers can identify to our students when they’re working on an assignment, ‘This is human only,’ all the way over to ‘this AI-generated with human insight at the end,’” Bronickowski said.
Toledo Public Schools has its own guardrails. TPS did not have anyone available for an interview but provided 13 Action News its AI policy, adopted by the board in June 2025 and last revised in April 2026.
Under the policy, students must disclose when they use AI and cannot represent AI-generated content as their own work.
AI tools, whether free or fee-based, must be reviewed and approved by the superintendent or a designee before being used for staff work or student assignments.
The policy also prohibits inputting confidential staff and student data into AI tools and states that staff and students are responsible for all reasonably foreseeable consequences of using AI.
“To us, it doesn’t make sense to rule out AI altogether when we know there’s companies and organizations that are using AI to make sure their work is more efficient,” Bronickowski said.
The state of Ohio requires school districts to adopt local policies governing AI use, including issues like student privacy and how the technology fits into learning.
Under state law, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce was required to develop a model policy on AI use in schools by Dec. 31, 2025.
The requirement builds on recommendations from Ohio’s AI in Education Coalition, convened by U.S. Sen. Jon Husted while he was serving as lieutenant governor.
The coalition recommended local policies address clearly defined uses of AI by students and staff, privacy standards, ethical use guidelines, and a process for evaluating AI tools from outside vendors.
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