This week in the 802
1. Elmore, Morristown, Stowe: the rules are on the page.
Issue 1 flagged Lamoille South from a paywalled lede. On Monday, VTDigger ran Liberty Darr’s News & Citizen story in full, so anyone in the state can read what the combined board adopted on July 14.
Superintendent Ryan Heraty put it in a letter home. Kindergarten keeps devices out unless a kid needs assistive tech. Middle schoolers leave the Chromebooks at school, write homework on paper, and do not get AI tools. YouTube is blocked. A teacher walked downstairs last week to buy pencil grips. Hands were cramping.
Molly Triffin Gaines, a Stowe parent on the committee, noticed cursive back in third grade at meet-the-teacher night. Heraty told the paper more than 80 percent of families who answered a survey said to get the phones out. The two-page policy and the 12-page grade-band plan come back to the boards every year.
AOE’s January guidance is still advice. This is one union writing its own rules.
https://vtdigger.org/2026/09/14/new-tech-policy-takes-shape-at-lamoille-south-supervisory-union/
2. From the first bell, the phone stays put.
That is the law this school year. 16 V.S.A. § 583. Health plans, IEPs, 504s, a principal’s okay for class or sports, and McKinney-Vento are the exceptions. A board that never votes is treated as if it adopted the Agency model.
Lamoille South also barred student AI. We did not open a matching student-AI ban from another district this week.
https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/16/009/00583
3. Barre voted no a third time. The chair pointed at Facebook.
Tuesday, Barre Unified rejected the spending plan again, 53 percent to 47. City yes, town no. Board chair Garrett Grant told Seven Days he thinks “AI propaganda” on Facebook helped, and that the community is not working from the same set of facts. Seven Days quoted posts from an account called MAGA Vermont. It did not show a model wrote them. What we can print is what Grant said.
Election Day is November 3. Inside 90 days of a Vermont election, Act 75 still requires a disclaimer on deceptive synthetic campaign media. Satire is exempt. A Brattleboro video got a preliminary injunction last week. The statute is still on the books.
https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/barre-school-budget-fails-for-third-time/
https://legislature.vermont.gov/Documents/2026/Docs/ACTS/ACT075/ACT075%20As%20Enacted.pdf
If it lands here
Menlo Ventures asked U.S. adults this year how they use chatbots. One in four now take health questions to a model, up from 14 percent last year. Most still want a person for mental-health support. Vermont already drew that line. Act 156, signed June 17, bars a company from offering mental-health services by AI alone. Asking “what is strep” is not the same as letting the bot treat you.
https://menlovc.com/perspective/2026-the-state-of-consumer-ai/
Thursday, the European Commission proposed the EU Kids Act: no chatbot that pretends to have feelings or a relationship with anyone under 18, and no unsupervised chatbot use under 13. Twelve U.S. states have companion-bot laws. Vermont does not. A Lamoille South student cannot use those tools at school. A kid in another town can still open them on the phone the school took at the door.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-eu-wants-to-break-up-kids-and-their-chatbots/
Sen. Sanders wrote this week that he will introduce, with Rep. Greg Casar, a bill to ban “artificial superintelligence” and pause advanced development until federal safety rules exist. Vermont senator. Not Vermont law. Watch the text when it drops.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/09/16/regulating-ai-is-as-american-as-apple-pie/
The number
Heraty’s figure, not a statewide poll: more than 80 percent of Lamoille South families who answered the survey wanted the phones gone.
Try this / skip this
Try this: Ask your board for the written phone policy under § 583 and, separately, whether students may use AI tools. Two documents. If they only have the phone rule, that is the answer.
Skip this: Treating an unlabeled Facebook budget post as a fact sheet.
Also in the pile
Poitras v. Clark is still live. Last week’s injunction covers one video.
H.727 stays vetoed. Vernon’s old Yankee site still has no final plan.
Morristown floated a two-year pause on data centers in August. Adoption not confirmed here.
The AI Advisory Council’s next regular slot is the first Friday in October.
Vermont has no companion-chatbot statute.
Close
From Wallingford. Drafted with tools, edited here. If a fact is wrong, hello@aiinthe802.com.
What town are you in, and what did your school board write down about phones and AI?
AI in the 802