Rural schools and districts make up more than 40% of the U.S. education system, yet their perspectives are often missing from conversations about AI in education. That absence matters.

Rural communities bring deep local knowledge, community-driven design, and a long history of creative problem-solving. At the same time, many AI tools and implementation models are built for conditions that don’t always reflect rural realities—from connectivity and staffing to access and capacity.

As AI adoption accelerates, rural perspectives can’t be an afterthought. The Rural AI Strategy Lab is designed not only to learn alongside educators, but to turn that learning into practical models, tools, and resources that other rural communities can use to launch, strengthen, and scale their own AI work.