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Policy, Ethical, & Legal Considerations

School leaders must prioritize policy, ethics, and legal considerations when integrating AI into educational settings to ensure a safe and effective learning environment. Adhering to relevant laws, addressing ethical concerns, and complying with data protection regulations not only protects students, educators, and families but also sustains community trust. Engaging legal counsel and involving community members —such as parents, teachers, and technology experts—further helps administrators mitigate risks and shape responsible AI policies.

We identify four key areas for school and district administrators to address:

1. Approaches for Integrating AI into Existing Policies:

Determining whether AI warrants standalone policies or can be embedded within Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs), technology plans, or broader district guidelines.

2. Policy Safeguards:

Establishing guardrails around AI usage (e.g., acceptable scenarios, prohibited activities), articulating accountability measures, and clearly defining repercussions for policy violations.

3. Data Privacy Safeguards:

Ensuring AI vendors and internal systems comply with FERPA, COPPA, and other relevant data protection mandates, and educating staff on secure data handling and storage.

4. Copyright Safeguards:

Providing clear guidance on the fair use of AI-generated or AI-assisted content—particularly regarding text, images, and multimedia—while maintaining academic integrity and intellectual property rights.

We recognize that AI usage, particularly surrounding data privacy, security, and ownership as well as concerns surrounding generative AI originality and content, is constantly evolving. As such, these guidelines center all approaches on community collaboration and partnerships to ensure concerns and risks are identified and mitigated as early as possible.

Resources Highlight: NEOLA

A few Florida districts have leveraged NEOLA for guidance on drafting and updating policies. Check out their website to see if it can help your district, too! If you are beginning the AI policy process – contact us to learn more about the experience of our districts!

Developing Guidelines at Your School/District

Adapted from AI for Education ‘Guide to Developing an AI Policy For Your School’

Guiding Questions

When starting to draft or refine your policies, encourage school and/or district teams to explore questions such as:

  1. How are students and teachers already using AI in and out of the classroom, and what benefits are they experiencing?
  2. What key problems of practice or areas of opportunity do teachers and staff see where AI could provide support?
  3. What potential challenges or risks might arise as AI is used in these areas, and how can we address them proactively?
  4. How have recent AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT) affected teaching, learning, and administrative practices in your school?
  5. What successes or positive changes have been observed, and what lessons have been learned?
  6. What are your biggest concerns about AI use this year, and what ethical questions are most relevant to your community?
  7. How can these concerns be balanced with the opportunities AI presents?
  8. How can existing academic and behavioral policies be updated to safely and effectively include AI tools?
  9. What types of professional development are needed for educators and staff to effectively use AI and meet instructional goals?
  10. How can family outreach be enhanced to educate parents, caregivers, and guardians about AI’s benefits, risks, and role in learning?

Key Steps

Establish a Shared AI Literacy Plan

Ensure students, staff, and families have a clear, accessible foundation of knowledge about what AI is—and isn’t—through PD and community workshops.

Draft Clear, Flexible Guidelines

Define role-specific guidance and language along with acceptable and prohibited uses for AI with multiple means of representing the information to support all community members.

Engage the Broader Community

Include parents, local industry representatives, and community organizations in policy discussions and solicit ongoing feedback to refine or adapt the guidelines.

Recognize an Evolving Policy

Present AI guidelines as “living documents” and schedule regular check-ins to evaluate successes, identify gaps, and refine guidelines as new tools and challenges emerge.

What to Include

Appropriate Use of AI Tools

  • Establish consistent syllabi and/or course policies to enable transparency and accountability. 
  • Outline which assignments or activities permit AI assistance and which rely solely on student-generated work.
  • Address the level of teacher oversight required when students employ AI resources.

Tracking & Documenting AI Use

  • Establish expectations for citing or acknowledging AI contributions (e.g., “Assisted by AI tool XYZ”).
  • Promote transparency so educators and peers understand how AI shaped the final outcome.

Data Privacy & Security

  • Define how student and staff data are protected when using AI tools (e.g., FERPA/COPPA compliance).
  • Ensure there is clarity about which personal information (PII) or school-specific data must never be shared with external AI systems.

Academic Integrity & Fair Use

  • Identify potential areas where AI could compromise originality or honesty, and outline consequences.
  • Address fair use of AI-generated materials, especially regarding copyright or ownership issues.

Common Issues to Consider

  • Unreliable AI Outputs: AI may produce inaccurate responses (hallucinations) or reflect algorithmic biases.
  • Ethical Implications & Biases: In addition to academic dishonesty concerns, AI may inadvertently reinforce stereotypes or inequities.
  • Faulty AI Detection Tools: Tools intended to identify AI-generated work can yield false positives or negatives, sometimes harming students who are nonnative English speakers.
  • Overreliance on AI: Students might overuse AI, limiting their own development of critical thinking or creativity.
  • Prompting: Strategies and approaches to prompting.
  • Environmental Impact: AI, especially large-scale generative models, can have significant resource and energy demands.

Examples of AI Usage (adapted from AI for Education)

R

Appropriate Use

  • Explain topic in a way that I can understand
  • Help me brainstorm & explore ideas
  • Help me study for an upcoming assessment
  • Provide feedback on my work for areas of improvement
  • Provide appropriate disclosure of all AI use
Q

Inappropriate Use

  • Using AI without permission from teacher
  • Completing an entire assignment, homework, or assessment with AI
  • Not reviewing & verifying AI response for hallucinations or inaccuracies
  • Not revising the AI output so that it reflects your human voice and style
  • Not being transparent about & disclosing or citing your work with generative AI

Resources

Resources for Updating Previous Policies or Drafting New AI Policies:

Kapor Center Responsible AI and Tech Justice: A Guide for K-12 Education 

Strategies for Co-Designing and Introducing Your AI Policies

During Policy Updates and/or Creation

School Level

Hands-On Workshops: Encourage teachers to share how they’re already experimenting with AI, discuss challenges, and co-develop best practices.

Community Level

Virtual Learning Sessions: Coordinate parent and student nights to demonstrate AI tools and discuss school concerns.

Surveys: Share out quick, actionable surveys for parents and the community.

Class Level

Co-Create Classroom Rules: Construct a Guiding Commitments (below) with your students.

Student-Led Infographics or Videos: Encourage students to create materials explaining key AI policies or best practices, building ownership and awareness.

Introduction of AI Policies

School Level

PD Sessions: Present AI policy basics; demonstrate common AI tools; gather faculty input on potential pitfalls and successes.

AI Cohorts: Have AI Ambassador teachers lead peer workshops or learning cohorts demonstrating policies in action.

Community Level

Kick-Off Assemblies or Virtual Forums: Launch the AI policy publicly to inform the broader community and highlight responsible usage.

Make sure to have multiple accessible representations of your policies for all parents and guardians!

Class Level

Case Studies & Debates: Present real or hypothetical scenarios involving AI misuse, biases, or success stories; foster critical discussion.

Personal Scenarios & Reflection: Ask students to reflect on how they might (or already do) use AI tools in completing school assignments, encouraging honest

Community Connection for Safe and Effective Use

Strengthening AI practices in education calls for collective understanding and open dialogue among students, educators, families, and local partners. Below are two brief activities that encourage collaborative exploration of AI’s role, highlighting ethical considerations and shared responsibilities.

The Case of Generative AI: Redefining Original Work

This activity can be done in classrooms, via virtual workshops, or professional development sessions and centers on the concept of “original work” where AI tools can assist with tasks like research, writing, or problem solving.

Steps:

  • Establish a scale that identifies scenarios ranging from minimal AI use (e.g., grammar checks) to heavy AI reliance (e.g., fully generated essays)
  • Have participants brainstorm different scenarios and place them on the scale or spectrum indicating whether the work is primarily “student-produced” or “AI-generated”

Discussion Points

  • At what point does a piece of work shift from being student-produced to AI-generated?
  • How might different forms of AI support still respect original thinking and authenticity?
  • What role does the data used by AI have in terms of identifying originality? Are there any copyright issues if the data used by AI was not consented for use?

The goal of this activity is to come to a shared understanding of what is “original work” and aligning that definition with your school’s integrity standards. This approach can also give students agency and voice in decision-making surrounding AI usage.

Drafting Guiding Commitments for Your School

Empower students and educators to articulate mutual rights and responsibilities regarding AI use in the classroom, ensuring balanced protections and opportunities for all.

Steps:

  • Invite each group (students, teachers, admin) to propose “commitments” they believe are essential (e.g., Transparent Use, Data Privacy & Security, Student Agency).
  • Combine overlapping ideas into a concise set of guiding principles—each “commitment” paired with actionable approaches:

Our school community is committed to protecting the personal and academic data of all of our members. In order to do that, we are responsible for following established data security protocols, using strong passwords, and promptly reporting any data breaches or suspicious activities.

  • Compile the final statements into a one-page “Guiding Commitments for AI Integration” prominently displayed in learning spaces.

The goal of this activity is to showcase a shared commitment to fostering a learning environment in which AI and technology supports, rather than undermines, teaching and learning.

Additional Resources for Responsible Use

Check out these great resources to use at your school!