The Mountain View-Los Altos High School District endorsed a ban on AI-enabled smart glasses Monday, August 3, leaving PAUSD without a comparable policy 10 days before its own school year begins.
PAUSD's roughly 10,100 students return Thursday, August 13, under a mobile device policy approved in November 2025 that says nothing about smart glasses. The policy allows high school students to use smartphones during non-instructional time and requires devices be turned off in class, but it never names AI-equipped eyewear like Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which can silently photograph and record video, play music, and interact with an AI assistant.
A general privacy clause states devices "shall not be used in any manner which infringes on the privacy rights of any other person." Whether that language covers a student wearing camera-equipped glasses in a hallway or restroom is untested.
What MVLA did
At its August 3 meeting, the MVLA board agreed that smart glasses are "more distracting than valuable" in a classroom and endorsed a policy that would bar students from wearing, activating, or using AI-enabled eyewear on campus at any time during the school day. That's stricter than MVLA's own cellphone rules, which still permit phone use between classes.
"I don't see how this could benefit learning," MVLA board member Vadim Katz said during the meeting.
Board member Catherine Vonnegut raised a specific scenario: students could photograph others in compromising positions, including in restrooms, without detection. The endorsement is not yet final. MVLA will take a formal vote at its next meeting.
A widening gap
MVLA is not alone. The Sequoia Union High School District approved a ban on smart glasses during instructional time in June 2026. The College Board barred students from wearing smart glasses during the SAT starting in March 2026.
PAUSD has revised its AI guidelines annually since the 2022-23 school year. In May 2026, Paly English department head Richard Rodriguez told Verde Magazine that teachers had been notified of potential changes to the district's AI policy for the coming year but said the work was "in its infancy."
New Superintendent Dr. Jason Glass, who started July 1, has not publicly addressed the smart glasses gap. No PAUSD board meeting is scheduled before August 13 in available public records, meaning any policy change would likely require an administrative directive rather than a board vote.
California's Phone-Free School Act, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September 2024, required every district to adopt a smartphone policy by July 1, 2026. The law does not address smart glasses.
