While some parent advocacy groups have pushed for recent bans on artificial intelligence in New York City and Los Angeles, at least one national survey shows that parents want AI in the classroom — if implemented responsibly.
In a September survey from the National Parents Union (NPU), 77% of parents said they want K-12 public schools teaching students ways to use AI tools effectively and 85% said they support schools teaching students about AI safety.
Less than half of parents (46%) believe their state is handling technology use in schools “well enough,” according to the online survey of 1,528 parents. Overall, parents would like to see “measured” approaches rather than “wholesale restrictions,” coupled with more teacher training.
The survey comes at a time of intense debate among parents, teachers, district leaders, state officials and federal policymakers about whether — and when — children should use AI in school. The backdrop is an uneven patchwork of AI policy across the country.
“I’m not opposed to AI at all. I think it’s a great resource, a great tool,” says Pam Craig, a mother of three teenagers in Raynham, Massachusetts. “But I’m more concerned about the kids using it solely and not actually learning the information that they’re going to school for, not having some guidelines and guidance on how to use it properly.”
States and districts are operating without federal guidelines on K-12 AI integration. In most schools, decisions are left up to individual teachers, according to the AI School Policy Database.
New York City and Los Angeles public school systems restricted students’ use of AI for at least a year. In Los Angeles, where the ban affects students in kindergarten through grade 12, a committee is meeting throughout the school year to discuss policy recommendations.
The New York City restriction on student-facing generative AI, which applies to students from preschool through eighth grade, is intended to get students off screens and “to develop skills alongside their peers, build relationships with educators and wrestle with tough problems on their own,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in September. High school students will have twice-yearly AI literacy modules.
Whether schools teach or prohibit AI use, many young people are using it in their daily lives, and they’ll enter a workforce where AI skills are increasingly necessary.
But how safe is the technology? A vast majority of parents surveyed (81%) want to prohibit public schools from buying technology that is “not proven to be safe and effective for learning.” A similar majority (79%) said they support requiring all public school teachers to be trained in digital and AI literacy and “responsible technology use.”
Those are major reasons NPU co-founder Keri Rodrigues, who has five sons, believes it’s essential to teach AI — responsibly — in public schools.
“We can’t just sit on our hands and say ‘Oh gosh, we’re going to pretend this stuff doesn’t exist,’” Rodrigues says. “The headline for me as a mom, but also what I’m seeing from parents and families in the research, is that we actually want to make sure that we are protecting and preparing kids to be globally competitive for the future.”
She believes AI literacy should start before putting students in front of a screen. For example, children should know what AI is, the differences between generative AI and other types of AI, and how to use it responsibly before getting access to AI tools in the classroom, she says. Students should also learn the dangers of turning to chatbots for companionship, she adds.
The National Parents Union, which conducts advocacy, research and coalition building, includes more than 1,800 affiliated parent organizations across the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The survey of parents of K-12 public students was conducted Sept. 7-11.
The NPU survey also found that 71% of parents support banning students from using AI chatbots throughout the school day. But parents believe students should still be able to identify when a news report or photo is AI-generated.
“It’s something that requires a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, when we’re regulating it,” NPU’s Rodrigues says.
A Call for Stronger Safeguards
Some AI-embedded instructional materials have started to make their way into edtech tools with little or no proof that the technology improves student learning.
Framing generative AI in education as a choice between ban or no ban creates “a stark binary that misses the complexity and inevitability of the current technological revolution,” according to the Brookings Institution.
“I definitely think that there needs to be education on it because it can get out of hand very quickly with the rabbit holes you find yourself in on AI,” says Craig, the mother to three teens.
Craig says she notices a gap between her 17-year-old daughter’s and her 14-year-old son’s teachers in terms of their training.
Training Is Lagging
Teachers and parents support incorporating AI training into the professional development that is required of teachers. But technology has moved at a clip that professional development hasn’t kept pace with.
Less than a quarter of teachers who participated in the 2026 “Voices from the Classroom” survey from Educators for Excellence (E4E) said they’ve received “adequate training to support students in effectively leveraging AI tools,” and 43% said they’ve received no training at all. When it comes to their own use, 37% of teachers said they’ve received adequate training.
“It’s like a brave new world that most teachers are exploring on their own,” says Evan Stone, the co-founder and CEO of E4E.
Meanwhile, the survey shows teachers are using the technology in the absence of clear guidelines.
Over three-quarters of the surveyed teachers said they’re using AI in at least one of eight ways “to strengthen their professional practice.” Examples include creating assessments, drafting communication to families and differentiating learning.
The data is clear: Parents and teachers alike aren’t looking to close classroom doors to innovation. But when it comes to AI, they are calling for clear boundaries and proper training.
