What the new federal rules mean for school drone programs, and the three questions to ask any company before you buy. For CTE directors, program leaders, and procurement officers.
On December 22, 2025, two federal actions changed what drones US schools can buy. The FCC added foreign-made drones and their critical components to its Covered List, blocking new equipment authorizations from foreign manufacturers. The American Security Drone Act took full effect the same day, barring federal grant funds from buying or operating drones from covered foreign entities. Schools can keep flying drones they already own, and vendors of foreign-made hardware can keep importing and selling their current and earlier authorized models. The change is forward-looking. It shapes the next purchase, and the capability of foreign manufactured hardware is frozen in time.
Models already authorized can still be imported, sold, and flown. What is blocked is everything forward. No new foreign model, and no new version of an existing one, can enter the US market. Covered drones are also out of the FCC process that lets a manufacturer push capability updates, so a foreign drone cannot gain new capability through firmware. A temporary waiver keeps security updates running only through January 1, 2029.
ASDA took effect the same day, barring federal grant funds, from Perkins V and ESSER to JROTC, STARBASE, NSF, and NASA STEM budgets, from buying or operating drones from covered manufacturers, and that list keeps growing. The practical effect: a foreign drone bought today is the last of its line, locked at the capability it ships with, with no successor that can clear US authorization. More capability means a new drone, and the school is forced into that swap rather than choosing it.
Asked of any company including FTW, these three tell a school what it needs before a multi-year purchase.
Two things sit inside this question: who builds the drone, and where. A school buys from one company, but that company often does not make the hardware. It may be a reseller sitting down funnel of the real manufacturer, who has its own suppliers further up the funnel and in other countries. The company taking your order relies on other companies to fill it. Ask plainly whether the vendor makes the drone or resells it, and where it is built. Fewer parties between the school and the people who actually build the drone means less interference and fewer points of failure.
Vendors update two different things. One is curriculum: new lessons and mission packs, which most ship regularly. The other is the drone itself: firmware that adds flight modes, sensor processing, or autonomous behavior it did not have at purchase, plus the architecture that allows up to a 30g payload, a 4 pin connector, and an ICD for modules Hopper can carry that add to its onboard sensors. For foreign-produced drones that second path is now closed, if the hardware was even built for it in the first place. They are off the FCC update process, and the waiver that keeps them patched covers only security through January 1, 2029, not new capability. The ceiling is set twice: fixed hardware, and no firmware path to more capability.
The day-one price is the easy comparison. The three-year cost is the one that matters, and the line items that drive it rarely appear on the first quote. Ask any vendor for a three-year total that includes:
For reference, FTW's three-year picture for a 12-drone Hopper program is a $5,600 Year 1 bundle (drones, Build Fly Code platform, activity set, starter parts, competition access, and lifetime hardware warranty), plus $995 per year in Years 2 and 3, which covers the Build Fly Code platform renewal at $500 and the spare parts kit at $495. That brings the three-year total to $7,590. A three-year prepay is available at a discount on the platform renewal line. No per-team or per-event competition fees, and no separate curriculum subscription. Current pricing is on the shop and is subject to change.
FTW serves the full training arc, from upper elementary classrooms and STARBASE programs to the United States Naval Academy, with middle school, high school CTE, and college engineering in between. We build the whole stack.
Procurement reviewers can contact FTW for the full compliance package, including component sourcing, the Buy American Act framework, and sole-source language for districts that need it.
If you are paying with federal CTE dollars, the ASDA restriction above applies directly to that money. Perkins V will still fund a drone pathway. It will not fund a covered foreign aircraft. See the Perkins V funding guide for what qualifies, what gets flagged, and how to write the request.
This page reflects the regulatory landscape as of May 17, 2026 and will be updated as the framework evolves. To suggest a correction or talk through a specific situation, contact FTW.
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