Ohio Becomes First US State to Mandate AI Policies in Every K-12 School District (HB 96)

Ohio's House Bill 96 requires the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to publish a model AI-use policy (delivered by 31 December 2025) and requires every traditional public school district, community school and STEM school in the state to adopt a formal artificial-intelligence policy — either the state model or a locally adapted equivalent — by 1 July 2026, making Ohio the first US state with such a statewide K-12 mandate.
The required policies must address student and staff use of AI for educational purposes, data protection and FERPA alignment, integration with curriculum, evaluation of third-party AI tools before procurement, and consistency with existing academic-integrity and anti-bullying policies, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce and reporting by the Dayton Daily News and the Ohio School Boards Association.
As a legislative mandate rather than a locally piloted tool, the policy's practical enforcement and the quality of individual districts' resulting AI policies have not yet been independently audited; compliance reporting became due only as of the July 2026 deadline.

Read the full analysis: https://education.ohio.gov/Media/Ed-Connection/Aug-20-2025/Ohio-updates-requirements-for-artificial-intellige