Parents and teachers split as Google rolls out AI reading help in every classroom

An artificial intelligence reading assistance tool designed to give children one-on-one reading instruction is offered through Google Classroom this summer, sparking both optimism and concern among American parents and teachers.

The program, Read Along, listens to a student read aloud and assists them with mispronounced or unknown words. Teachers can tailor content to individual student needs, create reading groups and track statistics. The program also asks students questions about the texts to help improve reading comprehension, according to a press release.

Michael Balkin, a parent in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, said he would research the platform before entirely dismissing it but criticized it as “a frightening program to put in front of a kindergartner, first grader or second grader.”

Education tools like this one may increase security breaches because they record students’ voices, according to Balkin. He said he is skeptical of educational AI tools, which may over-assist a student without a teacher’s awareness.

Balkin is part of a group of parents in the Lower Merion School District who are concerned about too much technology in classrooms. In early 2026, he helped start Pencils Over Pixels, an advocacy organization helping parents and students understand what technology is used in the district’s classrooms and fight against its overuse.

Many parents argue they are not fighting against all use of technology. Rather, they want their children to have hands-on, person-to-person education, according to Pencils Over Pixels’ Facebook page.

“Pencils Over Pixels is not anti-technology. We understand the world we live in is full of it,” Balkin said. “What we’re trying to do is preserve childhood, preserve learning, empower teachers to actually deliver a curriculum, and to avoid some of these negative so-called side effects of excessive screen time in the classroom.”

Pencils Over Pixels is part of a larger, nationwide movement to reduce and remove screen time in schools, according to the website.

Last school year, a New York City parent asked to opt her child out of a school’s AI reading program, but the district said the child was helping train technology for future students, the New York Post reported.

Meanwhile, New York City Public Schools – the largest school district in America – implemented a bell-to-bell limit on smartphones in September 2025, following many other districts and states that have done the same. In May, New York State United Teachers also announced a resolution to limit AI and screens for pre-K to second grade.

Beginning in August, Los Angeles Unified School District – the second largest district in the U.S. – will implement device-free learning for early education up to first grade. For 2nd through 12th grades, the district will heavily limit screen time for students both in the classroom and on homework assignments, ABC reported.

However, some Pennsylvania teachers say technology and AI programs are helpful, especially in larger classrooms.

Becca Thrush, a first-grade teacher at Shepherdstown Elementary in Mechanicsburg, has a classroom full of 6- to 7-year-olds. Thrush has had between 18 and 22 students in her class, which she said was an average size for public schools like hers. Each child receives an iPad for independent work.

Thrush uses programs such as Pebble Go, IXL, and Epic!, digital educational tools with eBooks, reading questions and educational games, similar to Read Along.

“I find iPads so helpful, and my students love them,” Thrush said. “It’s so motivating for kids at that age, and helpful because the iPad gives them right or wrong answers right away. The kids don’t have to wait for me to tell them.”

Kristie Ritchie, a fourth-grade teacher at Chatham Park Elementary in Haverford, also said technology and AI tools have been useful in her large classroom. Ritchie inputs students’ written assignments into an AI tool and instructs it to give the students initial comments on their work. Using AI keeps the large group working so she can focus on editing with one or two students, Ritchie said, adding that she still preserves a personal connection with each student.

At Delaware County Christian School (DCCS) in Newtown Square, teachers are discussing technology use under different criteria: Christian stewardship.

DCCS Director of Innovation Matthew DeFranza has spent the last year researching AI, its usage and its effects on education. DeFranza’s work helped shape DCCS’s AI policy, which will be released before school starts in August.

Figuring out the school’s position on AI and technology was complicated because of varying opinions from school families, DeFranza said. Some families were completely on board to incorporate AI and other forms of technology into the classrooms while other families wanted nothing to do with it. DeFranza said DCCS’s policy attempts to strike a middle ground between these camps by recognizing both the dangers and benefits of technology and AI in the classroom.

“The best way to form students for a redemptive impact on the world is to form their minds at the developmentally appropriate stages,” DeFranza said. “A lot of that requires focusing on the good and true and beautiful in ways that AI is not right now, but then also embracing AI in the places where you can at the stage that it’s appropriate.”