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Osceola school board hears broad rule revisions, including new AI-use limits and discipline changes
Summary
At its May 5 meeting the Osceola County School Board received a workshop on proposed 2026–27 rule revisions covering the code of student conduct, student progression, AI acceptable use, sick-leave donation caps and procurement enforcement; the board set a June 23 public hearing before final action.
At the May 5 School District of Osceola County board meeting, staff presented a workshop on proposed revisions to district rules that would update the code of student conduct, the student-progression plan and a suite of policy areas including acceptable use of artificial intelligence.
The revisions were read into the record by John Boyd, who told the board the package is intended to "comply with recent changes in state law and to provide consistency with school district precedent and current practice." Boyd listed multiple changes: additions to mission and vision language, new paragraphs clarifying extracurricular participation for home/private/virtual students to align with Florida Statutes sections 1006.15 and 1006.2, and new enforcement language for procurement and social-media policies.
The presentation also flagged several tangible policy shifts. The sick-leave bank rules would remove a previous five-workday waiting requirement and cap compassionate sick-leave receipts at 40 days per qualifying event. The risk-management proposal would permit the Department of Risk Management to negotiate repair settlements up to $10,000 when at least two appraisals or estimates are obtained. Network acceptable-use updates add streaming unauthorized audio/video to prohibited activity. A new rule (8.603) would add an "artificial intelligence acceptable use" paragraph that expressly bars student use of AI tools to generate answers on district, state or national standardized assessments.
Board members pressed staff for technical clarifications. Chair Cahoon asked whether content in the code of student conduct was duplicated across sections; staff confirmed there had been duplication and said they had removed an elementary section to resolve overlap. The presentation also notes detailed page-level edits throughout the code and student-progression documents (examples: adding prekindergarten in one section; replacing guidance language with counseling and mental-health references; updating graduation charts and concordant-score options to align with State Board of Education rule 6-1.09422 of the Florida Administrative Code).
Next steps: Boyd said the district will bring the revised rules back for a public hearing on June 23, followed by final action. No final board vote on the package occurred at the May 5 meeting; the workshop recessed and the board reconvened to continue other agenda business.
• Who spoke: John Boyd (presenter) and Chair Cahoon (board questions).
