The Carpinteria Unified School District board on Aug. 12 approved the first reading of new Board Policy BP 0441, which acknowledges both the potential benefits of artificial intelligence for instruction and administration and the risks AI poses to student achievement, health and well-being.

The policy language presented to trustees describes principles for permissible AI use by students and staff and directs administrators to develop site-level guidance. The board approved the first reading without a substantive on-the-spot explanation of how the policy’s nine broad statements would be applied in routine classroom situations.

Union leadership used the public-comment period to press district officials and trustees for clarification, asking for routine scenarios that would demonstrate how the policy’s nine points would play out in practice. Commenters argued that approving a broad AI policy without examples could leave teachers and families uncertain about acceptable classroom uses and disciplinary or academic consequences.

District representatives said the policy is modeled on sample language provided by the California School Boards Association and that administrators will follow up with site-level conversations and staff training, particularly at the secondary level, to work through how different AI tools will be used in classrooms. The board recorded a unanimous vote in favor of the first reading and deferred further detail to subsequent discussions and the policy’s second reading.