Broward School Board Member Sarah Leonardi District 3

08/26/2026

We celebrated 100 years of Pompano Beach Fire Rescue last weekend and I’m so grateful for everything Pompano Beach Fire Rescue does for our community - especially for our kids!

08/18/2026

Saw this morning that OpenAI put out a teen version of ChatGPT. If a kid signs up as 13 to 17, that is what they get now. It blocks the stuff you would want blocked, nudges them to take a break after an hour and a half, lets parents set hours where it just turns off, and the homework mode makes them work through the problem instead of handing over the answer.

Part of me wants to be optimistic but I’m still skeptical. Many kids are using AI frequently for many different purposes. Some version of it is going to be in their lives whether we like it or not, and guardrails beat no guardrails.

But I keep getting stuck on the timing. Florida sued OpenAI back in June. There are families in court right now who say this chatbot had a hand in their kids’ deaths. This update did not show up because somebody in San Francisco had a change of heart. It showed up because lawyers made it show up.

If you have a middle or high schooler who uses these tools, it is worth ten minutes tonight to sit down with them and actually look at the settings together. It’s important for us to continue to ask questions of the companies and organizations (including our district) to ensure the safety and health of our kids.

What are your thoughts?

The artificial intelligence start-up announced a chatbot mode that will automatically limit some conversations to better protect young users.

08/15/2026

When our community invests in public education our kids thrive. Yesterday we celebrated a $5,000 contribution from Burlington to the teachers of McNab Elementary School. Our teachers will be able to use that money to provide resource for our kids and help them have an even better 26-27 school year. Thank you to everyone who cares so much about our local public schools! Broward County Public Schools

08/06/2026

Yesterday I had the pleasure of sitting down with city leaders from all over Broward County for a great roundtable with the Superintendent. I’m grateful that leaders from every part of our community here in Broward care so much about public education. We discussed safety, funding, and making Broward a more affordable place for BCPS employees among other things. We make progress on these issues when we all work together. Thank you to everyone who participated and to the Superintendent for making these discussion possible!

07/28/2026

Three commitments on how our schools handle student devices and AI, approved at the school board meeting today. This is a start, and we have more work to do.

1 Safety alerts in real time. Concerning student activity on school devices gets flagged and sent straight to DSOC as it happens, not days later when it’s too late to help.
2 Less screen time for our youngest. VPK through 1st grade, screens come out only for state-mandated testing or accommodations for students with special needs. Little kids learn best from teachers and each other.
3 Hard limits on AI and devices. The AI and technology policies coming to the Board will carry the maximum limitation on device and AI chatbot use for elementary students.
Technology should serve learning, not replace it, and it should never come at the cost of student safety.
Next up: School Board, August 4, 2026. Swipe through for the details, and let me know what you want to see in the final policy.
Protecting students. Promoting learning.

07/25/2026

On Thursday BCPS launched our partnership with Bus Patrol to help protect students traveling on our schools buses. Our buses are now equipped with stop arm cameras to deter unsafe driving around BCPS school buses. This is the largest program in the country and I’m proud to support another layer of safety for our students.

07/11/2026

This is the kind of proactive approach governments at all levels need to be taking. I, like many, are extremely worried about AI’s impact on jobs in the future. Bipartisan efforts like this that are seeking to do something about it are important.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how school districts like ours can address this problem, and one aspect that’s not being discussed enough are the technical programs we offer. That’s why I proposed that BCPS reevaluates the careers we train children and adults for so that we aren’t preparing them for jobs that won’t exist in 5, 10, or 20 years.

Former Biden administration official Gina Raimondo is leading a bipartisan effort to AI-proof the country’s workforce.

07/09/2026

This is exactly why Broward County Public Schools has been taking a cautious approach to bringing AI into classrooms.

AI has enormous potential to help students and teachers, but schools also have to consider issues like copyright, academic integrity, privacy, bias, and the reliability of AI-generated information. These aren’t theoretical concerns anymore, they’re playing out in courtrooms and school districts across the country.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel, the New York Times and other newspapers filed a joint federal motion alleging OpenAI destroyed evidence in ChatGPT lawsuit.

07/06/2026

This is why I continue to bring proposals that protect our students’ mental and academic health when it comes to this technology.

We have to do everything we can to hold these companies accountable for the damage they do and hold them to the highest standards.

FIU researchers found that tiny practically invisible changes to an image can push chatbots into answering prompts they’re designed to block. This comes at a time where families are suing AI companies over unsafe responses.

07/01/2026

Every student, every teacher, every person who works in our schools to keep them clean and safe, every cafeteria worker who ensures our kids our nourished, every bus driver who gets our kids to and from school safely, every school leader who opens the school in the morning before the first buses arrive and closes the school at night after the last football game, every front office worker who greets our community with a smile, and every adult whether they’re a parent, grandparent, auntie or uncle who has poured into our students, you all own this great accomplishment. We are an A rated district for the third year in a row because of you. Thank you.