Maryland's public school districts have a summer assignment with a hard due date: write the rules for how artificial intelligence can be used in their classrooms, and have them ready by this fall.
The deadline comes from the Artificial Intelligence Ready Schools Act, a bill Gov. Wes Moore signed in May. It ordered the Maryland State Department of Education to publish its own AI guidance, then gave each of the state's 24 school districts 120 days from the day that guidance came out to adopt policies of their own. The department has since released its recommendations, starting the clock.
According to reporting by Maryland Matters, the state guidance lays out eight elements for districts to weigh, including data privacy, technology bias, and keeping classroom instruction "human-centered." Districts are told to define clearly what appropriate AI use looks like, to vet any AI tool against structured state criteria before approving it, and to keep reviewing those tools for safety and effectiveness.
Richard Kincaid, an assistant state superintendent who helped lead the effort, said the point is to put AI in a supporting role, not the driver's seat. "AI is not something that replaces the things that are happening within a classroom," he said. "The teacher will always and forever be the subject matter expert for the content within a class."
A Law Built Around Workforce Readiness
State Sen. Katie Fry Hester, a Democrat representing Howard and Montgomery counties who sponsored the Senate version of the bill, framed it as much about preparing students for work as about setting guardrails. The law also requires the education department to provide teacher training.
"Whether a student wants to be a nurse or a teacher or a mechanic or an engineer or if they want to start a business, they're going to encounter and have to use artificial intelligence," Hester said. "So the students need to know how to use these tools, and they need to understand the fundamentals of how they work, when to trust them and how to use them appropriately."
Some Districts Are Already Moving
Several Maryland systems are not starting from scratch. Montgomery County Public Schools has leaned toward using AI to support teacher tasks, while monitoring student use more closely and treating it largely as a lesson in transparency. In Prince George's County, some students have already worked with AI through district-approved pilot programs.
Scott Murphy, director of curriculum and instruction for Frederick County Public Schools, said his district's existing AI policy already meets the state guidelines, but that it plans "upgrades" for the coming year, including a local AI advisory group to monitor how the rules play out. Frederick has not formally endorsed a specific product, Murphy said, but is considering using Google's Gemini through the Google accounts teachers and students already have.
That variation is exactly what district leaders say they want. Mary Pat Fannon, executive director of the Public School Superintendents' Association of Maryland, said before the guidance came out that she hoped it would account for how differently resourced the state's 24 districts are. "What we want as districts is we want some flexibility to be able to engage with our individual teachers unions, with our principals and with our communities to figure out where we are right now," she said.
What Teachers Want: Clear Lines
For the educators who will actually enforce these policies, the ask is specificity. Justin Fauntroy, who teaches computer science and technology at Argyle Middle School in Silver Spring, said he wants a policy that spells out exactly how AI can and cannot be used, and what happens to a student who misuses it. "It is a tool, it has its benefits, but if they're not taught, then that's where the problems come in," he said.
Kincaid said the guidance is "incredibly clear" on the non-negotiables, monitoring for privacy and bias and confirming that tools meet educational standards, while leaving districts more room to choose the specific products they use. The state and the law also require professional development so teachers can use AI responsibly. Maryland plans to offer online modules to bring educators up to a common baseline, Kincaid said, but individual districts will have to train staff on whatever tools they adopt.
The Harder Part: Keeping Up
Fannon noted that squeezing AI training into an already crowded professional-development calendar could be "tough." And even a strong first policy may not stay current for long. Jing Liu, an associate professor of education policy at the University of Maryland and founding director of its Center for Educational Data Science Innovation, said the guidance is a good starting point but will be hard to maintain as the technology moves.
"AI is very different compared to prior technology breakthroughs, they are evolving so fast and they can do things that are directly different this month compared to last month," Liu said. Any policy, Liu said, "cannot be a static thing. It has to be very adaptive."
That is the tension every district now faces on a deadline: write rules firm enough to protect students and clear enough for teachers to enforce, for a tool that may not look the same by the time the school year is underway. Maryland's 24 districts have until the fall to try.
Sources
Maryland Matters: Maryland school districts face fall deadline to set AI policies
Maryland State Department of Education
