A new report from the Consortium for School Networking surveying roughly 600 K-12 technology officials found that nearly eight in ten school districts now have AI guidelines in place, up significantly from 57 percent the prior year. Progress on paper is real. However districts consistently reported insufficient staffing and funding as the primary barriers to implementation. Training staff on responsible AI use was the most common initiative reported, while fewer than half of districts have applied AI efforts to actual classroom instruction. EdSurge
Cybersecurity the Top Concern
Nearly all respondents expressed concern that AI introduces new forms of cyber attack exposure, with student data privacy ranking equally high. Two thirds of those same officials reported lacking the staffing and budget to adequately address those concerns. The findings align with a series of high profile breaches affecting school systems nationally, including the recent Canvas incident that impacted Virginia districts directly.