Alpha Chicago, a private school where students learn core subjects from AI software in about two hours a day, opened September 8 in the Loop. Adults called guides replace teachers. Tuition is $55,000.
Mary Johnson
From an angsty chatbot at a Dayton alternative school to AI math tutors in Wichita, districts are testing AI on their own. A Stanford review of more than 800 papers found only 20 rigorous studies of whether AI tools actually change outcomes for students or teachers.
Arthur Chen
About one in three teens has used an AI companion for friendship, emotional support, or other social reasons, one national survey found. A newer Pew survey puts teens who get emotional support or advice from chatbots at 12%. Psychologists quoted by the American Psychological Association worry about what the bots are built to do.
Kate Carter
A new NBC News poll finds 56% think a school that prohibits AI prepares students better, up nine points since June 2025. The same survey finds only 31% say no AI use is acceptable on schoolwork. Both numbers are real, and the space between them is where district policy has to live.
Arthur Chen
The nation's largest school system will bar student-facing generative AI from 2-K through eighth grade for the 2026-27 year, ban companion chatbots in every grade, cap classroom screen time, and limit high school AI to five named pilots. The mayor's message to the tech industry was blunt.
Mary Johnson
Google announced a wave of AI study tools for the new school year, including a free year of its paid tier for college students. What the announcement does not include is guidance on how students should use any of it. Here is the practical version, plus what families should check first.
Kate Carter
A Farnsley Middle School student agenda labeled Kentucky 'Venecky,' Illinois 'Vitoiis,' and included a distorted periodic table. Parents pay a $10 fee for the booklets and suspect the pages were AI-generated. The school told teachers to have students tear the bad pages out.
Mary Johnson
The AI-based private school network is opening in Jamaica Plain and Beacon Hill, charging up to $65,000. The Jamaica Plain building belonged to the Croft School, which folded in June owing $12 million. Boston's school committee approved one location and says it has no oversight of what happens next.
Mary Johnson
Lancaster Country Day School wants a lawsuit thrown out. Two students pleaded guilty to 59 felony counts. The school's defense rests on a gap in Pennsylvania law that lawmakers have been trying to close ever since.
Mary Johnson
High schoolers from all 50 states spent a weekend in a replica Senate chamber in Boston and passed the Students First Act. A superintendents group is now sending it to 10,000 school leaders who are writing their own AI rules with no federal guidance.
Mary Johnson
Salamanca put its humanoid robot pilot on hold while it works out student data privacy agreements with the state. The superintendent says Sally was never going to teach. The state commissioner points out a board presentation called it a tutoring platform.
Mary Johnson
Assume that in ten to twenty years an AI explains any K-12 concept better than the average adult in the room. The job of teacher still is not the same thing as the task of instruction. What holds an adult in that room is legal, custodial and economic, not technical.
Arthur Chen
Salamanca High School will be the first US school to deploy a humanoid robot and AI teaching assistant. Teachers want a pause, the state has raised privacy concerns, and Seneca residents say a school where roughly a third of students are Native American should not be the test site.
Mary Johnson
Alpha School, a billionaire-backed private chain that runs on two hours of AI learning a day and has no certified teachers, is opening in Oklahoma City and Tulsa this August. Tuition is $40,000, nearly double the priciest private school in the state. Here is how it works and why critics are alarmed.
Mary Johnson
A new Common Sense Media report says Google's AI-powered Search is an 'unacceptable risk' for students, and here is the catch that makes it a headache for schools: you cannot disable the AI without disabling Google Search entirely. That means a kid can hit AI Mode just by doing homework.
Mary Johnson
