Parental Consent & Transparency for AI in Utah Classrooms

What happened

On June 3, 2026, the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) and Google announced a statewide partnership to bring “Gemini for Education” to every K-12 public school in Utah, beginning in the 2026–2027 school year. By the state’s own figures, the rollout reaches approximately 680,000 students and 28,000 educators— described by Google as the first statewide deployment of generative AI at this scale in the country. The tools are provided at no cost, and Google Career Certificates and AI training are free through December 2027.

State Superintendent Molly Hart framed the goal as ensuring “students possess the necessary skills to navigate a changing world.” The Board points to House Bill 273 (2026), the Classroom Technology Amendments, as the statutory backdrop for helping districts navigate AI. The Board says local education agencies (districts and charters) retain “full discretion over whether to implement” the tools.

Why we are concerned

The objection is not to technology. It is to the way this decision was made and the rights it skipped over:

• No parental consent.Not a single public source — Google’s announcement, the USBE press release, or any news coverage — describes a requirement for parental consent before a child uses Gemini.
• No guaranteed opt-out. The state pushed the adopt-or-decline decision down to districts, with no statewide guarantee that a parent may keep their child out without academic penalty.
• No transparency.The financial structure of the deal has not been disclosed — whether Utah pays licensing fees, receives subsidized access, or is a pilot. A single vendor was selected for an entire state with no disclosed competitive process.
• No public vote on the record. The partnership was rolled out as an announcement, not as a publicly deliberated and recorded board action with an opportunity for comment beforehand.

What this petition demands

We, the undersigned Utah residents, call on the Utah State Board of Education and the Utah Legislature to adopt the following safeguards before any classroom AI system is used with our children:

1. Affirmative parental opt-in consent

No student should be enrolled in, or required to use, Gemini or any generative-AI learning tool unless a parent or legal guardian has first given informed, written, affirmative consent. Consent must be specific, revocable at any time, and never bundled into a blanket start-of-year acknowledgment.

2. A clear, no-penalty opt-out

Every family must be given plain-language written notice and a guaranteed opt-out that carries no academic penalty, no segregation, and no loss of instructional opportunity. Opting out must be as easy as opting in.

3. Genuine alternative learning options

Districts must offer a meaningful non-AI instructional path — and, where AI is used, the ability to choose an alternative AI tool — so that a student who opts out is taught the same standards by the same teachers without being disadvantaged. Parents petitioning their legislators should ask that funding for these alternatives be protected.

4. Full transparency and competitive vendor choice

USBE must publicly disclose the full terms of the Google agreement — cost, data-handling obligations, and duration — and commit to a competitive, vendor-neutral process rather than a sole-source statewide selection. No single company should be granted privileged access to an entire generation of Utah students behind closed doors.

5. Transparent disclosure of intent from the algorithm’s maker

Regardless of the source — Google or any other provider — the maker of any algorithm used on Utah minors must publicly and plainly disclose how the model works, what data it collects and retains, how that data is used, and the company’s intent in offering the tool to children. Parents cannot consent to what is hidden from them.

What Google promises — and what it does not

In fairness, Google has made real commitments, and this petition states them accurately. Google says that content and conversations within Gemini for Education are private, protected with enterprise-grade security, and not used to train its AI models; that schools keep administrative control; and that the product is built to comply with FERPA, COPPA, and HIPAA. For accounts of users under 18, Google says there is no human review of student content.

But these are vendor assurances, not parental rights. The teen Gemini experience is generally intended for ages 13 and older; for children under 13, the only parental control Google describes lives inside its own Family Link product — not as a USBE-guaranteed opt-out. USBE itself cautions that AI output “may be inaccurate, misleading, or incomplete” and stresses keeping “a human in the system.” A corporate privacy policy can change. A parent’s right to consent should not depend on it.

Make your voice heard

Signing this petition is the first step. The second is contacting the Utah State Board of Education directly and showing up — in person, online, or in writing — at a public board meeting. USBE meets monthly; public comment is generally heard from 9:30–10:00 a.m., meetings are livestreamed on the USBE Media YouTube channel, and written comment may be sent to publiccomment@schools.utah.gov.

Upcoming public board meetings (2026)

• Thursday, August 6, 2026
• Thursday, September 3, 2026
• Thursday, October 1, 2026
• Thursday, November 5, 2026
• Thursday, December 3, 2026

Dates from the official USBE 2026 Board Meeting Schedule and are subject to change. Confirm times and agendas at schools.utah.gov before attending. The next regular public-comment opportunity is the August 6 board meeting.

Key USBE contacts

Share your concerns about Gemini AI, parental opt-outs, data transparency, and competition with the people who can act:

This petition is offered for advocacy and policy consideration. It is not legal advice and does not constitute the official position of any state office or legislator. Factual claims are drawn from public announcements by Google and the Utah State Board of Education and from contemporaneous news coverage; figures and terms are subject to update as more detail is released.