Switzerland's educa.ch — a Federal-Cantonal Legal Framework for AI in Schools

Switzerland's decentralised education system, in which 26 cantons each run their own schools, created a need for shared legal clarity as AI tools began entering classrooms. educa.ch — a specialist agency jointly run by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SBFI) and the Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) — took on this coordinating role.

To provide shared legal clarity on the use of AI in schools under Switzerland's revised Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP, in force since September 2023), covering personalised learning/AI assistance, school administration, assessment, and future applications.

In August 2024, educa.ch published a legal analysis ('Rechtliche Auslegeordnung zur Entwicklung und Nutzung von KI im Bildungsbereich') covering four AI use cases in schools against the nFADP. In January 2025 it followed with dedicated guidance on secondary use of pupil data by AI-tool vendors, clarifying processing roles and consent requirements. In December 2025, the Conference of Cantonal Governments (KdK) published a cross-sectoral stocktake of AI regulation across the cantons, situating education alongside health and public administration.

Both instruments are advisory rather than binding law, so actual canton-by-canton adoption and enforcement are not centrally measured, and cantons remain free to legislate independently — a real limitation acknowledged by observers, meaning consistency across the Confederation cannot yet be verified.