{
  "publication": "The Ledger, Brief No. 002 — the classroom AI standard",
  "url": "https://pillargtm.com/ledger/briefs/ai-classroom-standard/",
  "snapshot_as_of": "2026-08-01",
  "the_number": "24 of 51 state K-12 AI policies govern whether a student used AI dishonestly. Zero require the company whose AI is teaching that student to show that it works.",
  "the_reversal": "We built a regulatory apparatus for AI in schools and pointed almost all of it at the children rather than at the vendors.",
  "the_check": "All six binding statutes that touch efficacy or vendor review are printed in full with links. Read them and decide whether that reading is fair.",
  "supporting_figures": {
    "registry_rows": 62,
    "policies": 51,
    "absence_records": 11,
    "jurisdictions_with_a_policy": 40,
    "jurisdictions_with_none": [
      "AR",
      "AZ",
      "CO",
      "DC",
      "FL",
      "IA",
      "KS",
      "NE",
      "NH",
      "NY",
      "SD"
    ],
    "binding": 15,
    "guidance": 36,
    "covers": {
      "ai_literacy": 36,
      "acceptable_use": 44,
      "data_privacy": 42,
      "bias_equity": 32,
      "teacher_pd": 32,
      "procurement": 10,
      "efficacy_or_vendor_review": 10,
      "academic_integrity": 24,
      "deepfakes": 1
    },
    "academic_integrity_policies": 24,
    "efficacy_policies": 10,
    "efficacy_binding": 6,
    "verified": 34,
    "needs_review": 17
  },
  "caveats_that_must_travel": [
    "State-level policy only, as of 2026-08-01. Districts may impose standards their state does not.",
    "The classification of what each policy covers is PILLAR's own coding of the text, not the states' own labels.",
    "17 of 51 records are marked needs-review, meaning the primary source has not been independently re-read.",
    "Eleven jurisdictions have no policy identified. An absence is the hardest finding to establish and the most likely to be wrong.",
    "Policy in force only. Bills in progress are not counted."
  ]
}