Los Angeles schools are locking generative AI chatbots out of district-issued devices, following New York City down the same path.
The policy blocks access to tools like ChatGPT on school-owned computers and tablets. It mirrors a move NYC schools made earlier, and it's aimed at curbing AI-assisted cheating and unsanctioned use during class time. But the restriction only covers hardware the district controls. Students carrying their own phones or laptops can still reach any chatbot they want, ban or no ban.
That loophole is the real story here. A device-level block is easy to announce and easy to measure, which makes it attractive to administrators who need to show they're doing something about AI in classrooms. Whether it changes actual student behavior is a separate question, since most teenagers already have a personal device in their pocket. This looks less like a solution and more like a policy that lets districts say they acted while the underlying access problem stays exactly where it was.
Expect more districts to copy this playbook, and expect the same gap to show up in all of them: banning a tool on hardware you own does nothing about the hardware you don't.