evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

St. Paul Federation of Educators — Minnesota's First AI Collective-Bargaining Protections for Teachers

United States of America · Saint Paul · See the United States of America profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 73% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Saint Paul Public Schools' 2025 contract with the St. Paul Federation of Educators bars adverse employment action based solely on AI-generated data and protects jobs from generative-AI-driven cuts, one of the first ratified K-12 union deals of its kind.

St. Paul Federation of Educators — Minnesota's First AI Collective-Bargaining Protections for Teachers

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
St. Paul Federation of Educators (AFT Local 28)
Period
2025
Keywords
K-12 education, teacher labour rights, collective bargaining, generative AI

Context

In 2025 the St. Paul Federation of Educators (AFT Local 28), representing teachers in Saint Paul Public Schools, Minnesota, ratified a labour contract with school officials that directly addresses generative AI in the classroom and workplace.

Objectives

The union sought explicit contractual protections against AI-driven job losses and against employment decisions based solely on AI-generated data, while preserving educators as the primary mode of instruction.

Activities

The ratified contract states that the district 'shall not eliminate bargaining unit members as an immediate and foreseeable result of adopting or implementing generative AI technologies,' and that no educator may be disciplined, involuntarily transferred, or given an adverse evaluation solely on the basis of AI-generated data, metrics or analytics. An accompanying memorandum of understanding commits the district to continuing to rely on professional educators, rather than AI, as the primary mode of delivering instruction.

Results

The National Education Association has highlighted the SPFE contract as one of the first comprehensive K-12 union agreements to bargain explicit AI protections into a ratified contract, and it is now referenced by other US educator unions negotiating similar clauses.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
St. Paul Federation of Educators (AFT Local 28), Saint Paul Public Schools (district officials/negotiators)

Conditions for success

  • Union collective-bargaining leverage to write AI protections into a ratified contract
  • Explicit contract language restricting AI-only disciplinary or evaluation decisions
  • An accompanying memorandum of understanding on AI's role in instruction

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Replication kit

Reusable artefacts from this practice — as published by their sources.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

Similar practices you may find useful