🛝 The Rules Students Grew Up With Are Disappearing

Welcome to Playground Post, a bi-weekly newsletter that keeps education innovators ahead of what's next.

This week's reality check: The FTC told a federal court that schools can't consent for parents when edtech companies collect student data - and lawsuits against platforms used by 18 million students are now active. Congress is proposing to cut $1.6 billion from Title I and eliminate $3 billion more in teacher development and English learner funding. And a quarter of kids would ask a chatbot for homework help before asking an adult.

Data Gem

University of Chicago researchers surveyed 338 undergraduates and found 60% use AI tools, but 90% think the average student does. A 30-point perception gap is driving stigma, policy confusion, and overcorrection. Students associate AI use with laziness and fear of expulsion even though most use it for support, not substitution.

Schools Can't Consent for Parents on Student Data

For decades, edtech vendors have relied on a simple legal framework: schools consent on behalf of parents when digital tools collect student data.

The FTC just told a federal court that's wrong.

In an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit against IXL, a platform used by more than 18 million students, the Federal Trade Commission wrote that COPPA does not create "an agency relationship between schools and the parents of school children."

Andrew Liddell, co-founder of the EdTech Law Center, put it more bluntly: "These theories of consent that companies rely on in order to bypass actual consent from parents are all bogus. They have no basis in the law whatsoever."

The lawsuits are piling up. 

Three Kansas families sued IXL over "deceptive design techniques" that keep children engaged and share their data with third-party companies. 

Two California mothers sued Curriculum Associates, maker of i-Ready, arguing the company gained "virtually unfettered access" to children's personal information, including birth date, gender, race, and disability status.

Districts are already responding. Los Angeles and Washoe County, Nevada, are rethinking their use of i-Ready or scaling back screen time.

A Utah state board investigation of 100 apps commonly used in schools found that over a third shared student information with advertisers. A New York comptroller's audit documented 141 data breaches or unauthorized data releases between 2023 and 2025.

But Mark Williams, a California attorney specializing in edtech contracts, warned that requiring vendors to get direct parent consent for every product would be an "administrative nightmare."

For education innovators, this is the most urgent compliance signal of the year. Every company collecting student data needs to understand that the legal foundation they've relied on is being challenged in court with FTC support. Parent consent management platforms, vendor data-flow mapping tools, and privacy audit services move from "nice to have" to "required before your next contract renewal."

Congress to Eliminate $3 Billion in Teacher and EL Funding

A House appropriations subcommittee advanced a fiscal 2027 education bill on an 11-7 party-line vote.

The proposal cuts $1.6 billion from Title I, the federal government's primary funding stream for low-income students.

That's a 9% reduction.

It eliminates Title II-A (teacher professional development) and Title III-A (English learner support) entirely. Combined: $3 billion per year.

Full-Service Community Schools: $150 million. Eliminated.

Preschool Development Grants: $315 million. Eliminated.

The Institute of Education Sciences, which produces the research and data districts use to make decisions, would be cut from $790 million to $493 million.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro called the bill "a step on the path to eliminating public education." Republican lawmakers described it as balancing investment with necessary austerity.

The bill goes to the full House Appropriations Committee next. Congress rejected similar cuts last year and may do so again. 

But the proposal signals which funding streams lawmakers consider expendable, and that information matters for every district planning next year's budget.

For education innovators, this is a procurement planning story. If Title II-A disappears, the entire federally funded teacher professional development market contracts overnight. If Title III-A disappears, English learner programs lose their primary federal funding stream. Districts will need lower-cost PD alternatives, privately funded EL support, and grant-replacement strategies. And every product that relies on federal grant dollars for its sales pipeline needs a Plan B.

Kids Are Asking a Chatbot Before a Trusted Adult

A Common Sense Media survey of 1,204 children ages 9 to 17 found that nearly 25% would turn to a chatbot for help with schoolwork before seeking guidance from a teacher, counselor, or parent.

Among kids who use AI, 85% have used it for schoolwork or homework. About half use it weekly. 

One in five use it daily.

"AI is already a part of childhood in a way I think maybe people haven't really grappled with yet," said Michael Robb, head of research at Common Sense Media. "This is not about the future. This is happening right now."

The pattern is sharper among students who are struggling.

55% of kids who find math hard use AI weekly for schoolwork, compared with 46% who don't find math difficult. Kids who report feeling lonely are more likely to use AI daily.

40% of kids who use AI have used it to practice conversations and social skills.

That finding crossed a line researchers hadn't expected. Children aren't just using AI for homework. They're using it to rehearse how to talk to people.

A fifth of AI-using kids say it would be hard to give up AI for a month. Among frequent users, 42% say the same.

And adults are largely absent from the conversation.

56% of kids say their parents or guardians have not spoken with them about AI safety. Only 51% have been told by a school how to judge whether AI output is accurate.

"It's like giving your diary to AI and hoping for the best," Robb said. "But that becomes part of AI's training data and can become a privacy risk because you don't know how that's going to manifest itself later on."

Ryleigh Turner, a recent high school graduate, offered the counterpoint. 

She used AI as a tutor, to research universities, and to create a personalized SAT prep schedule. "There's much more to it than just cheating on your math homework," she said.

For education innovators, the 25% figure is a behavioral baseline, not a ceiling. It will grow. Products that channel this behavior productively, youth-safe AI tutoring with guardrails, AI literacy curricula that teach students to evaluate outputs, and parent communication tools that close the 56% safety-conversation gap, build for where students already are. The schools that succeed won't be the ones banning AI.

⚡️More Quick Hits

This week in education:

• FCC launches "top-to-bottom" review of $3 billion E-Rate program, vote scheduled June 25 — The review questions whether the three-decade-old school broadband subsidy increases screen time and "distractions or declining performance," while advocates push to expand E-Rate to cover cybersecurity

• Only 8% of school nurses plan to stay in education until retirement, 71% expect to leave within six years — A Soliant Health survey of 1,000 school employees found top burnout drivers were student behavioral challenges, staffing shortages, and high caseloads, while a George Mason study found 50% of school nurses met burnout criteria

• Spring enrollment up 1% but CS enrollment fell 8.4% while certificates surged 10.2% — National Student Clearinghouse data show undergraduate certificates are the fastest-growing credential type, nursing enrollment topped 1 million for the first time, and community colleges rose 3.1% to 5.8 million students

• NCES annual education report gutted: only 17 of 702 indicators updated after 2025 layoffs — The Data Quality Campaign warned the Condition of Education report provides less analysis and is "less useful" for districts lacking their own analytical capacity, as total K-12 spending crosses $1 trillion at $20,039 per pupil

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