The DOL AI Literacy Framework, Translated for K-12
TEN 07-25 is addressed to state educational agencies, state CTE directors, and state education commissioners, and the DOL AI Literacy Framework covers students, teachers, and faculty alongside workers. For districts, it provides the federal reference for AI literacy program design, reinforced by Education Department funding guidance and a signaled K-20 expansion.
Last verified against the DOL source: August 20, 2026. What changed
What TEN 07-25 says to you
Districts enter this framework through three doors. Door one: the TEN's distribution list includes state educational agencies, state CTE directors, and state education commissioners, the channel that flows requirements and resources to districts. Door two: the framework's audiences include students, teachers, and faculty, and its content areas were written to be taught. Door three, the forward signal: DOL "welcomes input on how the framework can be expanded" into "education and training programs across the K-20 landscape," which means K-12-specific federal guidance is coming and districts building now are building toward it, not guessing at it.
The funding context districts should know: the Education Department's July 2025 Dear Colleague Letter addressed using federal grant funds for AI to improve education outcomes, and the Secretary's supplemental priority made advancing AI in education a grantmaking priority. Meanwhile TEGL 03-25 opened workforce-system money for AI skills, relevant to districts running adult education, CTE, and workforce partnerships.
What it means for you
The framework gives a district three concrete assets. First, a scope definition for "AI literacy" that ends the committee debate: five content areas covering understanding, uses, directing, evaluating, and responsible use. Second, a delivery rubric: seven principles that double as vendor-evaluation criteria (experiential? contextualized to our classrooms? prerequisites addressed? content refreshed?). Third, cover: a program "built to the DOL framework" is a defensible answer to boards, parents, and auditors asking why this vendor, this content, this year.
Your first five moves
(1) train teachers and administrators first, the framework's enabling-roles principle, and the only sequence that works in a building; (2) integrate AI literacy into existing CTE and digital-literacy courses rather than creating a new standalone burden; (3) adopt the five content areas as your definition of done for student AI literacy; (4) evaluate any vendor against the 60 framework checkpoints (the Checker does this); (5) document everything, the evidence file is what the board and the state ask for.
The provisions that matter most to you
How GAGE serves you
District licensing of AI Literacy and Professional Conduct: the teacher track first, which is Delivery Principle 6, then student-facing literacy. Team seats run $89, $69 and $49 a seat by volume, from 10 seats, with a per-seat evidence report you can export for board and state reporting.
GAGE for school districtsQuestions from readers like you
Does TEN 07-25 require districts to teach AI literacy?
No. It is voluntary guidance, but combined with the Education Department's funding priority and DOL's signaled K-20 expansion, it is the clearest federal signal of where expectations are heading.
Is this framework for students or staff?
Both. The framework covers "American youth, students, faculty, and teachers, job seekers, and workers", and its delivery principles say the adults in the building need literacy first so they can guide everyone else.
Score what you have against the framework
Sixty checkpoints, twelve provisions, about twelve minutes, and a dated report you can put in front of whoever asks. Free, and the answers never leave your browser unless you ask for the report by email.
GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education) is a private education company, not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Department of Labor. DOL does not certify or endorse training programs. Framework summaries are drawn from the public TEN 07-25 document. Read TEN 07-25 on dol.gov. Last verified: August 20, 2026.
Last verified against the DOL source: August 20, 2026. What changed