HELP Committee Chair Cassidy Introduces Bill to Safeguard Use of AI in Schools
This week, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced the Learning Innovation and Family Empowerment with AI Act, a bill designed to strengthen student privacy protections while promoting responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) in K–12 education.
The legislation would prohibit using student photos to train facial recognition technology without parental consent, require that parents be allowed to review and access third-party education technology contracts at least two weeks before approval, and expand the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to cover a broader range of student information, including academic, health, and disciplinary data. It would support evidence-based training materials to help educators effectively integrate AI into their classrooms, expand Title II-A professional development to explicitly support AI and emerging technology initiatives, and instruct the Institute of Education Sciences to prioritize research and development in AI.