Teaching AI honestly

We publish a crosswalk against the two states whose language is specific enough to map. Here is what it claims, what it refuses to claim, and why the distinction is the point.

Three different subjects, used interchangeably by people selling all three. The distinction matters because state law treats them differently and so do transcripts.

Twelve things a serious course covers, taken from the language two states actually put in statute — plus the five questions that expose a tool tutorial in disguise.

Write it at the level of the step, not the tool. “Do not use AI” is not a rule a fourteen-year-old can apply, and it is the reason most incidents happen.

Conversations can start as soon as they ask. Structured courses generally start at thirteen, and that is an account-rules answer as much as a developmental one.

Curriculum is an eligible expense in every major ESA program. The friction is not eligibility — it is whether the publisher you want is an approved vendor in your state.

Several states moved in 2026 to stop it. The laws are uneven and mostly pending — which means the contract, not the statute, is still doing the work.

Twelve states legislated in 2026. The definition turns on one thing: whether the product is built to simulate an ongoing relationship — which is why most classroom tools fall outside it.

No, and the bill that comes closest is smaller than its name suggests — it unlocks existing money rather than requiring anything.

The State Board approved them on 12 August 2026. They still need the Legislature, and the superintendent was clear that nothing in them compels anyone to use AI.

One clause, in a list of sixteen. Here is exactly what it says, what it does not say, and why the standards that would give it teeth do not exist yet.

Six states have enacted something. Most requirements start between 2028 and 2032. Here is the current picture, state by state, with the dates that actually matter.

There is no publisher server in the loop. That is an architectural fact rather than a privacy promise — and it costs us things we decided we could live without.

It depends entirely on which kind. An assistant and a companion bot are different products built for different purposes, and only one of them is designed to keep your child there.

Less than most schools assume, if you avoid per-seat platforms. The real costs in this subject are adult hours and subscription lock-in, not software.

A prompt is not a search query. It is the entire context the model has, which is why the wording changes the answer — and why prompt tricks age badly.

Usually yes, as an elective — but the decision belongs to your school, your umbrella or your state, never to the publisher. Here is how it actually works.

One screen, the free tiers, and an hour a week is genuinely enough. The expensive parts of this subject are the ones that matter least.

It is not lying and it is not broken. A model produces plausible continuations of text; true ones are a subset of plausible ones, and it cannot tell the difference.

You do not need to understand transformers to teach judgment. Not knowing is an advantage, if you are willing to say so out loud.

Six states have enacted something; most of the mandates do not bite until 2028 or later. Here is what is law, what is guidance, and what quietly failed.

Do not lead with the detector score. Lead with a conversation about the work itself — it is more accurate, more defensible, and it teaches something.

AI literacy is not a course in using ChatGPT. It is knowing what these systems actually are, where they reliably fail, and which decisions a human must keep.

Probably yes — but not the way most thirteen-year-olds are using it. The question that matters is not whether they touch the tool, it is whether they can tell when it is wrong.