Fairfax County Schools' New AI and Classroom Technology Rules Start to Take Shape

Fairfax County's rules for the technology its students use every day are being rewritten, and artificial intelligence is at the center of the draft. Fairfax County Public Schools staff have presented early drafts of two policies to the school board's governance committee — one governing the use of educational technology in general, and one for emerging technology — FFXnow reported Monday.

The drafts, presented to the committee on October 27, were built from feedback from a newly established advisory committee, and the governance committee's input is the next step before the policies move further through the board. FFXnow noted that technology, and AI in particular, is expected to be among the most high-profile subjects the school board takes up during the 2026-27 school year — a notable place for a policy file in a division the size of Fairfax County's.

The board has already been making case-by-case technology calls this fall. At its October 8 meeting, the board voted 8-4 to carve an exception into the division's digital-device restrictions so kindergarteners who need additional reading support can use the literacy program Lexia this school year — a change affecting about 30 percent of kindergarteners — and the division will examine its use of instructional apps and software after two recent unanimous board votes ordering app reviews.

That is the tension the two drafts are meant to resolve: a single, written standard for which tools belong in Fairfax classrooms, how emerging tools such as AI are vetted, and where the exceptions live — instead of a fresh vote every time a program does not fit the existing restrictions. The drafts are early, and no final policy has been adopted; the board's handling of them will set the terms for classroom technology across Northern Virginia's largest school division.