🎒 Happy Monday! Today, we bring you a special edition about AI in the classroom, recess laws and why parents are splurging on school supplies.

⛅ Today's weather: Partly sunny with highs in the mid-60s, lows around 50.

🎧 Sounds like: "21st Century (Digital Boy)" by Bad Religion.

Today's newsletter is 1,103 words — a 4-minute read.

After decades of diminished recess time, nearly half of U.S. states — including California — now require it or other physical activity by law.

Why it matters: Recess is literally child's play. But researchers, pediatricians and parents say it's crucial for young students' physical and mental health.

By the numbers: School recess is now mandated in D.C. and 12 states. Laws requiring physical activity exist in 12 states, according to Johns Hopkins research.

Between the lines: "Physical activity" laws are broader than "recess" ones.

• They could include after-school sports and gym class. Nearly all states also have P.E. requirements.
• But physical activity and P.E. laws don't necessarily require free play, which advocates say is a daily necessity for kids.

The big picture: Unstructured play doesn't just teach social skills, but research connects it to increased classroom motivation and behavior, better school attendance, and less stress for students.

What they're saying: "Recess gives you a better feeling about school. Recess refreshes you," psychologist Peter Gray, author of forthcoming "Restoring Childhood," tells Axios.

• "Anyone who's ever spent even a day with a kid can recognize that if you kept them sitting all day, they'd go insane, they'd drive everybody else insane," says Hannah Thompson, a physical activity epidemiologist with UC Berkeley's Nutrition Policy Institute.
• Although schools don't tend to fight the idea of recess itself, Thompson says it can be a challenge for administrators to carve out more time for it and ensure it's not withheld as punishment.

Catch up quick: From 2001 to 2019, weekly recess time in U.S. schools dropped by 60 minutes.

• One oft-cited factor for the decline: The signing of "No Child Left Behind" in 2002, which led to more time focused on reading, math and school testing and less on recess.

The high-end, AI-powered private school Alpha Schools plans to grow from a dozen to roughly 50 campuses in the 2026 school year, its founder tells Axios.

Why it matters: While traditional schools navigate how to adopt AI, Alpha Schools has created an AI-dependent classroom model that the company claims reduces screen time and increases human interaction.

• Tuition costs $45,000 to $75,000 a year.

State of play: This school year, Alpha plans to open campuses in 27 markets.

• Alpha's Bay Area locations include campuses in San Francisco, Sausalito, Palto Alto and the East Bay.

How it works: Students spend no more than two hours a day on AI software to learn core subjects, Price says.

• They spend the rest of the day developing life skills in workshops. (For example, students have organized a music festival for a nonprofit.)
• Instead of licensed teachers conducting lessons, Alpha Schools hires "guides" whose jobs are to motivate and coach students. They're paid at least $100,000 a year.

The big picture: Many public schools have been slow to put clear guardrails around AI.

• Just 18% of teachers in public K-12 schools in a recent Gallup study said they've received formal guidance from school administrators on how to use AI tools.
• Meanwhile, parents are balancing whether letting their children use AI strengthens digital literacy or results in cognitive decline. The research is limited.

Friction point: Penn State professor Gerald LeTendre is concerned AI education models risk conflating teaching and tutoring.

• He argues helping teachers become proficient in AI is a more promising strategy than replacing them.

🗽 New York has surpassed San Francisco as a top tech market for tech talent, a new CBRE report shows. (CNBC)

🗳️ Prominent Democratic women, including donor Susie Tompkins Buell and local party chair Nancy Tung, are defending State Sen. Scott Wiener after Nancy Pelosi criticized his campaign's now-removed AI chatbot targeting Connie Chan as sexist and racially stereotyped. (SF Chronicle)

🕰️ The San Francisco Public Library has launched DigitalSF, a free online archive of more than 80,000 historical photos, maps, manuscripts, oral histories and more. (SFGATE)

🛍️ Union Square and Stonestown are showing glimmers of renewed retail life after years of vacancies. (NBC Bay Area)

U.S. families expect to spend nearly $1,000 on average on back-to-school shopping this year, a PwC survey shows.

• Nearly half expect to spend more than they did last year.

State of play: Families in the West plan to outspend the national average of $922 — which includes clothes, tech, equipment for after-school activities, books, school supplies and other one-time purchases.

What's happening: Prices are higher, classroom needs have changed and kids have more say over what families buy.

• They're seeing more ads on screens and often using digital wallets to buy things without parental interference, PwC's Kelly Pedersen tells Axios.

The big picture: Total K-12 back-to-school spending could climb around 10% this year compared to last, hitting a record $43.3 billion, the National Retail Federation forecasts.

Reality check: Spending doesn't stop once school starts. Households nationwide plan to spend $635 a month on recurring expenses like meals, snacks and tutoring, per PwC.

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Schools across the U.S., including in California, are cracking down on student cellphone use, but a new study finds the restrictions bring mixed results.

The big picture: Schools that require students to lock away their phones during class have seen phone use decline substantially, according to the study shared by the National Bureau of Economic Research in April.

• Student well-being also appears to improve the longer the rules remain in place.

Yes, but: "For academic achievement, average effects on test scores are consistently close to zero," the researchers wrote. They also found "little evidence" those policies affect attendance, attention in class or perceived online bullying.

By the numbers: As of this year, roughly two-thirds of states have enacted legislation limiting student phone access.

The bottom line: Cellphone bans may still benefit students — even if they don't directly translate into higher test scores.

📬 Thanks for reading!