Oceanside school district’s Parent University hosted a workshop on Jan. 13 to help parents navigate artificial intelligence at home and in the classroom, highlighting both its potential benefits and risks for children.
The program, titled “Healthy Kids, Smart Schools: Navigating Artificial Intelligence at Home and in the Classroom,” ran from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Oceanside High School. The evening included hands-on demonstrations with devices at each table, allowing parents to experience the AI tools their children use in school and see the district’s technology environment firsthand.
The evening was divided into two sessions. The first, “Raising Healthy Children in the AI Era,” was led by Dr. Fred Muench, an associate professor, psychologist, researcher and digital behavioral expert with Northwell Health. Muench outlined the rapid pace of AI development and its implications for children, emphasizing that parental guidance is essential.
“AI is moving so fast that even the researchers can’t keep up,” Muench said. “We’re dealing with incredibly powerful systems that are heavily personalized to what we say, do and think.”
He explained the difference between passive AI, such as social media feeds and recommendations, and active AI, including chatbots and conversational tools. While AI can help with mild anxiety or depression, it can also create emotional attachments that children may not recognized as simulated relationships.
“Kids are more likely to believe something they see on a screen than something an adult tells them,” Muench said. “AI doesn’t just capture attention anymore — it creates emotional attachment.”
He urged parents to delay AI exposure for children under 14 when possible and recommended open conversations, transparency and shared accounts over outright restriction.
“The real risk isn’t the technology,” Muench said. “It’s the unsupervised, private emotional bonding.”
Anna Policastro, the district’s executive director of technology, and Samantha Halper, its technology coach, led the second session, “AI in Our Classrooms and at Home.” They described how AI tools are being integrated into the curriculum to enhance learning while remaining teacher-supervised and age-appropriate. Examples included math bots that provide step-by-step problem-solving guidance, historical and literary chatbots to engage younger students and adaptive quiz tools that adjust to individual learning levels.
Policastro emphasized the importance of balancing guidance with trust.
“Our kids can swipe before they write; they talk to Alexa before they tie their shoes,” Policastro said. “AI is a tool. It is a helper. It is not the authority — you make the final decision.”
Both Policastro and Halper encouraged parents to guide their children rather than ban AI, teaching them to think critically, monitor privacy settings and model healthy digital habits. As a parent, Policastro suggested strategies such as asking children to explain how they use AI, discussing their feelings about it and setting screen-free times to prevent overreliance. Tools such as Bark, Net Nanny and Magic School support both safety at home and online as well as supervised classroom learning.
The evening concluded with a question-and-answer session and raffles for participants.
Julianne Kur — Parent University committee member as well as an Oceanside High School teacher and parent — said the workshop was an important opportunity for dialogue.
“Having the opportunity to have these conversations about these very important topics with the district is so important,” Kur said. “You have to be involved in the conversation to make change within, and we really want to capitalize on those opportunities. I think they’re doing a wonderful job of looking at this and taking these conversations seriously.”
The Oceanside School District hopes the workshop will give parents the tools to support safe, ethical and meaningful AI use — helping children benefit from technology while avoiding potential pitfalls.
