Orange County school board members yanked a long‑anticipated workshop item on April 28 that was set to hash out a draft policy on student use of artificial intelligence, saying they want more time to look it over. The proposal, shaped in part by more than 5,800 parent survey responses, would keep student data out of AI systems and block deepfakes, copyright‑infringing tools, and apps marketed as emotional support. Parents and teachers are still sharply divided on whether AI belongs in the classroom at all, with one camp focused on safety and learning‑loss worries and the other arguing students need AI skills for the jobs they are heading toward.
According to ClickOrlando, the station updated its coverage around 4:05 p.m. to report that trustees had pulled the AI policy discussion from the workshop agenda and that there is no new date on the books. District staff told reporters the board asked for more time to review the draft before taking it up in public.
What the draft rules would do
District staff says they reworked the guidelines using parent feedback gathered this spring, a survey that drew more than 5,800 responses. The proposal on the table would forbid entering student information into third‑party AI tools and would prohibit uses that generate deepfakes, violate copyright, or stand in for human emotional‑support services. That description of the plan comes from Spectrum News 13, which also noted that district officials had hoped to have a policy in place by the start of the next school year.
Board members call for guardrails
Board member Angie Gallo has repeatedly stressed the need to teach students how to think critically about what AI spits out and to put clear "guardrails" around how it shows up in classrooms, district reporting shows. Trustees have pointed to student privacy, shaky data accuracy, and the potential for AI to be misused as key reasons to move carefully, according to ClickOrlando.
Part of a bigger school tech fight
OCPS is not debating this in a vacuum. It's back‑and‑forth over AI mirrors a broader wave of districts and states scrambling to set ground rules for classroom use. Coverage out of nearby Palm Beach County shows similar district‑level rulemaking taking shape, and national education outlets have highlighted growing anxiety over AI‑generated deepfakes and student privacy, issues that are increasingly steering school policy talks across the country. For more on that backdrop, see reporting from WPBF and Education Week.
For now, the AI policy item is off the April agenda. The district had previously listed a rule‑development workshop for April 28, and staff had floated a tentative final vote on May 12, but officials have not set a new timeline. Meeting notices and agenda materials are posted on the OCPS website, and deeper reporting on the draft policy and the parent survey can be found via Spectrum News 13 and other local coverage.
