Introduction to Volume 2

Even those of us who stay tuned to the latest in educational technologies sometimes find ourselves catching up with the changes wrought by artificial intelligence (AI) and what it might mean for K-12 and higher education.Indeed, although AI is used widely by many, fewer understand AI's nature, risks, and benefits (Laird et al., 2025;Poushter et al., 2025).Facing uncertainty about how AI and state and federal policies might look in the future, many in education occupy a window where much is possible and rules are yet to be decided (Cho & Davis, 2026).To inform their efforts, this two-volume special issue brings together key knowledge on trends in state and federal policymaking, decision-making at the K-12 and higher education levels, and the interaction between AI practices and policy.Educational Policy has long served as a forum for understanding policy decisions and their implications for practice across both K-12 and higher education settings.Similarly, this special issue is organized into two complementary volumes.Volume 1: AI Governance and Policy Decisions (2027) leans into AI as viewed through policy documents and structures.Volume 2: Connecting Policy and Practice focuses both on the consequences of AI policies for practice, as well as what current AI practices can mean for future AI policies.