this week's reads: the destination problem.

Every state has a AI policy. Almost nobody has a destination for our kids.

I’m Monica Milligan. I’ve been in K–12 education for 20+ years, as a teacher, district leader, nonprofit leader, and school board member. I’m also a mom of a 6th and 10th grader. I write Raise Ready Moms to close the gap between what schools know and what families actually hear about how AI is changing childhood.

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In the Room #17 | ~9-min read

A few days ago, parents across our K-8 school district received a message about a new tool called LightSpeed Parent Portal (honestly, all I could hear at first was “Lightning McQueen”!). The tool gives parents more visibility and control of what their child is doing on the internet on school-provided laptops after school hours. I read the email twice... first as a mom, and then as a board member who’s been hearing from a number of parents concerned with their children’s exposure to technology.

What many parents may not know yet... is that the discussion about the role technology should play in our children’s education, and more specifically, the role AI should play in our schools, is happening in districts all across the country right now. Why? Because we don’t have a national AI approach... so states, districts, and schools are left to figure it out themselves.

So, this week... as we head back into the new school year, I wanted to bring you... not three reads... but actually the map of what’s happening today around AI policy. So that you have a high-level understanding of the conversations happening in board meetings & district meetings across the country... and can use this background to decide what you may want to do for your school this coming school year.

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The map first.

At last count, more than 130 AI-in-education bills have moved through 31 state legislatures this year. Thirty-four states plus Puerto Rico now have some form of official AI guidance for their K-12 school systems. The specifics of this guidance varies significantly by state with Ohio becoming the first state to require every district to have a written AI policy in place by July 1. If you want to see where your own state lands, AI for Education keeps a running map, and TeachAI has the actual guidance documents linked for every state.

Source: AI for Education

And this is happening against a backdrop of more and more free, teacher-facing AI tools landing each week. Earlier this month, for example, Anthropic offered all teachers free access to Claude for the coming school year... prompting student data privacy concerns from many, including a large district’s tech chief who shared “governance should not be an upsell.”

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The spectrum, and the gap.

Once you read enough of these policies back to back, they sort into four buckets. Most schools and states are sitting in the first three.

As I reviewed AI policies, what was notable for me (besides the incredibly WIDE variation of approaches we are taking as a collection of states) is that no one is thinking about... or even naming... the need to focus on durable skills as a PART of their approach to AI.

Don’t get me wrong, there are states with policies around durable skills (aka enduring skills our children need to thrive in school and life; skills like critical thinking, communication, collaboration). For example, North Carolina’s “Portrait of a Graduate” beautifully names seven skills every graduate should leave with: adaptability, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, empathy, a learner’s mindset, and personal responsibility.

BUT there’s no connection between this policy and the policy about AI... even though as AI continues to expand and impact job markets, we know (as much as we can know anything about the future of AI)... that our children need to master these durable skills now more than ever. Mike Kentz wrote a sharp piece this summer He shares that CEOs are no longer demanding schools teach AI skills, but rather telling universities the opposite: teach the human skills, the AI part takes care of itself.

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What to do

So, what can you - as a parent - do?

First, know that.... while policies are imperfect, there are good examples of what schools can do to not only address AI usage, but to build durable skills in the process. Here are a few examples:

None of those practices addresses every single thing... but they offer up examples of what small changes (that focus on both AI and durable skills) can do to set students up for an AI-dominated world. It’s the same bet I’ve been trying to make on my school board, and honestly, the same bet this whole newsletter is built on: teach the thing AI can’t do first (i.e., durable skills), and AI becomes a lot easier to have an opinion about.

Second, ask your school where they are regarding durable skills.
SO... your school almost certainly has an AI policy by now, or will within the year. What it probably doesn’t have is a durable-skills answer, a plain statement of what your kid should be able to do that no chatbot can do for them. That’s the part worth asking about, not because the AI policy doesn’t matter, but because the districts getting this right are starting from the kid, not the technology.

Ask it at back-to-school night, or drop it in an email to your principal or a board member. It’s a fair question, and right now, it’s one almost nobody’s asking.

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What’s your district’s answer been so far? Ban, guardrails, literacy, or something more like a Portrait of a Graduate? Hit reply, I read every one, and I’m genuinely curious what August looks like in your inbox.

See you Tuesday.
Monica

Raise Ready is a free newsletter for mothers raising kids who are ready for the world. New issues every Tuesday and Saturday.