Seattle — A bill is moving through the Washington state legislature that would ban certain uses of artificial intelligence in public schools.
Senate Bill 5956 sets out six prohibitions related to the “use of automated decision makers.” Those prohibitions are as follows:
- Using automated decision-making systems as the sole or definitive basis for decisions related to the student’s field.
- impose emergency removal, suspension, or expulsion; Refer to law enforcement. or assigning to an alternative educational environment based solely on predictions, scores, or classifications generated by an automated decision-making system. Or data from school surveillance technology without independent human review or consideration of context.
- Automated decision-making systems are used to generate risk scores or similar predictive classifications for individual students.
- Maintain an internal list or watch list of students based on an automated decision-making system.
- Enter into agreements with vendors or school service providers that require or permit them to engage in any of these prohibited activities.
- Use biometric data to generate or infer a student’s emotional state, mental health, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, or other sensitive psychological or personal characteristics.
“These tools need guardrails,” said Sen. Twina Nobles (D-Farcrest), a co-sponsor of the bill. “Technology is advancing very quickly.”
Nobles said one of the goals of the bill is to ensure that students are not treated unfairly because of AI technology.
“We want to make sure our system doesn’t exacerbate existing disparities,” she says. “And do not disproportionately impact students of color, students with disabilities, students who identify as LGBTQ+ or other protected groups.”
For example, examples of AI security systems impacting classrooms are occurring across the country.
Related Topics | AI Use in Schools Expands ‘Rapidly’ Due to Policy Delays: RAND Report
For example, in Maryland, a student was handcuffed after the system determined that a bag containing empty Doritos was a firearm.
In Florida, AI technicians determined that a clarinet was a firearm, leading to a school lockdown that lasted several hours.
“The false alarm caused unnecessary trauma for our teens and children,” said Derrick Harris of the Black Education Strategy Roundtable.
However, this bill is not intended to ban the use of AI within public schools, only to ensure that the work performed by AI still has a human element.
“Technology may provide the data points, but the conclusions drawn and the analysis of the data should not be by machines,” said Sen. Lisa Wellman (D-Mercer Island). Mr. Wellman also chairs the Senate Early Learning Committee. & K-12 Education Committee and bill co-sponsor.
During the first hearing, two supporters of the bill testified before the committee, but no opponents.
The bill is scheduled for an executive session of the committee on Thursday, where it may be voted on, amended, or not advanced/changed at all.
