Generative AI Guidlines

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Canva’s AI features are rapidly transforming how we think, teach, and learn. This page is designed to help educators navigate this evolving landscape responsibly and effectively. Whether you’re exploring AI to boost lesson planning, support diverse learners, or enhance classroom creativity, it's important to understand both the opportunities and the boundaries.

Here, you’ll find practical guidance on using AI in ways that are ethical, age-appropriate, and student-centered. From privacy protections and age restrictions to assessment strategies and tools approved for classroom use, these guidelines will support thoughtful decision-making. Our goal is to ensure all students benefit equitably and safely while preparing them to understand—and think critically about—the role AI plays in their world.

Generative AI Guidelines for Educators

Teacher Expertise and Vetting

While AI is powerful, it requires careful vetting of information and pedagogy to ensure it enhances teaching and learning.

Approved & Recommended:
- Use generative AI as a brainstorming tool, to help adjust or adapt lessons, or to make lessons more culturally-responsive, accessible, or equitable
To Be Cautious About:
- Ensure that the materials or lesson generated by AI are the proper level of complexity and are well-suited to our specific students and community
To Avoid:
- Taking lessons, materials, etc. from an AI tool and implementing them as-is without careful vetting

Age Restrictions

Follow the restrictions in the terms of service for all students, focusing especially on students under the age of 13.

Approved & Recommended:
- For users under 13, SchoolAI and Canva (using the AI tools built into it) are approved for students
- For younger students, facilitated interactions with AI tools where the teacher is modeling the use of it with the class
To Be Cautious About:
- Before having students directly use an AI tool (with the exception of Canva and SchoolAI), it is recommended that you send home a notification and/or permission slip to get signed to get verifiable consent from families and caregivers (even when the terms of service allow students over the age of 13 to use it)
  - Click here to access a template for a permission slip to send home.
- If you have an AI tool not listed below, check with the tech department before having students use it directly during class
To Avoid:
- Asking students under the age of 13 to engage directly with any AI tool unless otherwise specified in the approved section above
- Asking students under the age of 18 to sign up for an account on sites that require users to be 18+ to use

**TOOLS VETTED AND APPROVED FOR STUDENT USE**
Approved for All	Approved for All with Permission*º	Approved for 13 and Up with Permissionº
Canva SchoolAI	MagicStudent	ChatGPT
Note: If you have questions about additional apps you would like to add, feel free to reach out to Tyler Rablin or Cassie Schilperoort. * Students are not allowed to create user accounts for tools in this category, but they can access them with a pin, code, or link º Permission needs to include a signed consent form from a parent or guardian

Student Privacy

Avoid inputting any personally-identifiable information about students into any chatbot or tool that utilizes AI.

Approved & Recommended:
- Student accounts on Canva so that they can use the embedded AI tools
To Be Cautious About:
- Having students input their name when using a tool like MagicStudent, SchoolAI, or other student-facing AI tools that don’t require accounts. At most, students should only use their first name and last initial (no full last names or student numbers)
To Avoid:
- Using first and last names of students in an AI platform

Asking students to sign up for an account with an AI tool (even with their school Google account) unless otherwise specified in the Approved & Recommended section above

Equity and Access

Be mindful of how tools will either support or hinder the learning of specific groups of students.

Approved & Recommended:
- Allow and train students who need additional support for learning to use generative AI in productive ways to support their learning
- When appropriate, use generative AI tools to support in the translation of materials for students whose primary language is not the original language of the written text
To Be Cautious About:
- PLCs should have conversations about how they may or may not use AI in their classroom, with the goal of being more alike than different to ensure students are receiving a similar educational experience, especially in relation to how they are or are not using AI to support their learning and product creation
To Avoid:
- Requiring students to use AI for any assignment, as students may not have access to technology at home and families may also have ethical concerns about the use of AI and may not want their student to be required to use it

Awareness and Education

Provide students with age-appropriate expectations and information about how AI can both help and hurt their learning.

Approved & Recommended:
- Model how AI can help increase efficiency and effectiveness at accomplishing rote tasks
- Inform students of the limitations and impact of AI, including bias, misinformation, hallucinations, and environmental issues
To Be Cautious About:
- Monitor the use of AI tools to ensure that they are not hindering learning (ie. - if students are using AI in your room, occasionally ask students to a task without AI to see if they are learning and growing without it)
To Avoid:
- Moral statements around AI (eg. it’s bad or good)
- Ignoring the existence of AI and keeping students from learning about it

Note: The district is examining various resources and structures to support teaching students about AI (similar to the digital citizenship resources). Please don’t feel pressured to jump in and teach students about it if you aren’t comfortable with it on your own.

Detection of Unethical AI Use

When determining whether or not students used AI unethically in the classroom, avoid over-relying on tools that claim to detect AI

Approved & Recommended:
- Clarify up front what students need to produce to verify the originality of their work
- Use multiple methods, which can include an AI detection tool, to identify AI-generated work (examples include notes/planning documents, learning memos, conversations with students, additional evidence of learning, handwritten work, etc.)
To Be Cautious About:
- AI detection software often incorrectly identifies the writing of EL students as AI-generated, which can lead to equity issues
To Avoid:
- Using AI detection software as a single source of determining unethical AI use

AI-Aware Assessment Practices

When asking students to demonstrate their learning, be mindful that AI can generate products for many of the tasks that we ask students to do, which can give us an inaccurate understanding of what students know and can do. Note: these recommendations will vary greatly depending on the age of the students.

Approved & Recommended:
- Have elements of assignments where students talk about their learning (written, oral, or otherwise), identifying key skills and how they demonstrated them
- Clearly identify how students may and/or may not use generative AI, both at the classroom level and the individual assignment level
- (If allowing AI on assignments) Teach students how to cite generative AI so that when it is used, it is properly cited and identified to clarify what the students knows versus what AI generated
- Use shorter, more targeted assessments to gather specific information about student learning during class time
- Model and provide examples of proper and learning-supportive ways to use generative AI to support student learning (asking questions about content, asking for example problems, etc.) and task completion (scaffolding task steps, asking for feedback, etc.)
To Be Cautious About:
- Student-generated content outside of classroom time might be difficult to determine the originality of the content, and thus, may make it difficult to determine whether the product is an accurate representation of student learning.
- Even things like worksheets and short responses can be completed by generative AI if the student knows how to use it
To Avoid:
- Using student-generated text-based content (writing, projects, etc.) in isolation to determine a student’s level of understanding

Ethical Implications

AI can often create new scenarios that provide us with tricky ethical dilemmas, and as such, we need to be mindful about how we are using the tool.

Approved & Recommended:
- When asking AI to impersonate historical figures or act as if they are in a specific time period or context, be sure to talk to students about the fact that (a) this is not speaking for the real person, (b) that they may get things wrong or misrepresent the person, and (c) to be critical thinkers about the responses
To Be Cautious About:
- If you have AI impersonate historical figures, it is important to be mindful of what the actual person might have felt or thought about the concept being discussed or the historical figure they are being asked to converse with (example: asking Martin Luther King Jr. to talk about the virtues of both sides of the Civil Rights Movement)
- Be mindful of stereotypes that may be produced by generativeAI, as it is simply looking for the most common probability for a response, which could result in stereotypical answers.
- The energy and environmental impact of AI is significant and increasing, so aim to be intentional with how and how often you use AI tools
To Avoid:
- Asking AI to mimic the style of specific artists, as there are already many lawsuits about copyright infringements from AI-generated art stealing the work and/or style of individual artists

AI Board Policies

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