Pennsylvania House Bill 2786, reported as amended from the House Education Committee on October 6, 2026, would require every school entity and nonpublic school in the commonwealth to adopt a generative AI policy by the start of the 2027-2028 school year. The bill text, printed as PN 4006, would add Section 1303.3-A to the Pennsylvania Public School Code of 1949. The committee vote was 14 to 12, and the bill was laid on the table after first consideration on the House floor the same day, according to the Pennsylvania General Assembly's bill information page.
What the bill would require
The policy would apply to school districts, area career and technical schools, intermediate units, cyber charter schools, charter schools, regional charter schools, and nonprofit nonpublic schools that fulfill compulsory attendance requirements. Under subsection (c)(3), the policy must prohibit generative AI from making final determinations on graduation, promotion, grading, discipline, placement, and retention. A separate provision in (c)(4) bars generative AI from making final determinations on IEP development, program and placement decision-making, evaluations, reviews, and revisions, according to the bill text.
The bill also mandates enforceable vendor contractual safeguards covering student data privacy and security, breach notification, data deletion upon contract termination, and vendor accountability for unauthorized use of student data. Subsection (c)(6) requires a statement ensuring that student and employee personally identifiable information is not collected, disclosed, or retained by AI technology. The policy must include academic integrity provisions on plagiarism, disclosure, citation, and AI detection software, as well as consequences for students and employees for inappropriate AI use. Subsection (c)(7) directs the policy to identify employees responsible for evaluating, approving, and overseeing AI use, per the bill text.
The governing body of each school entity or nonpublic school must seek input from instructional staff when developing the policy. Training on AI literacy is permitted but not required. The policy must be posted on the school's publicly accessible website if one exists, and reviewed at least every two years, with the updated copy provided to the Pennsylvania Department of Education if revised. The department must develop implementation guidelines within 90 days of the bill's effective date, and the act would take effect immediately upon enactment, according to the bill text and the department's role as described in the legislation.
How other states have written AI mandates
Pennsylvania's proposal follows similar mandates enacted in Ohio and Oklahoma. Ohio's HB 96, signed in June 2025, required the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to develop a model AI policy by December 31, 2025, and requires each school district, community school, and STEM school to adopt an AI use policy by July 1, 2026. Ohio's law addresses appropriate use of AI by students and staff for educational purposes, but it does not explicitly bar generative AI from making final determinations on grading or IEP decisions, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
Oklahoma's SB 1734, the Oklahoma Responsible Technology in Schools Act, approved in May 2026, requires educator-directed AI use with a human-in-the-loop, prohibits AI as the primary basis for grading, discipline, placement, promotion, retention, and special education or IEP decisions, and requires each district to adopt a written AI policy before the 2027-2028 school year. The Oklahoma law goes further than Pennsylvania's proposal on parent-facing features: it requires annual written disclosure to parents of all AI tools in use, including vendors and categories of student data collected, and grants parents the right to opt their child out of student-facing AI tools without academic penalty, per the enrolled bill text.
Ohio also paired its AI policy requirement with a separate cybersecurity mandate. Ohio's HB 96 created R.C. 9.64, requiring boards to adopt a cybersecurity program by September 30, 2025, with compliance checks beginning July 1, 2026 for school districts, running on a timeline parallel to the AI policy adoption deadline, according to the Ohio School Boards Association.
Points of divergence
Pennsylvania's HB 2786 is distinctive among the three mandates in that it explicitly bars generative AI from final determinations on IEP development, a prohibition that Ohio's law does not carry. At the same time, it omits the parent opt-out and annual disclosure provisions that Oklahoma now requires. The bill also gives the Pennsylvania Department of Education a 90-day window to produce implementation guidelines, a shorter timeline than Ohio's model policy development period. The committee's 26-0 adoption of an amendment (A04448) on October 6, 2026, preceded the party-line report vote of 14-12, according to the bill information page.
The bill's sponsor, state Rep. Brandon Dukes, described it as part of a House Education Committee package intended to set guardrails for AI use in schools, according to a news release from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. The committee vote advanced the bill to the full House, where it currently sits on the table.