About a third of 40 school districts who were first to use artificial intelligence lack formal policies on the tool, according to an analysis by the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), as reported in K-12 Dive.
According to CRPE’s study, early AI adopters:
- Use teacher-centered AI tools (70%).
- Offer guidance on AI use for teachers, students and families (65%).
- Provide professional development to build AI literacy in school communities (63%).
- Supply student-centered AI tools (58%).
Using AI tools for safety and surveillance, offering student courses on AI and using AI to streamline district operations are fewer common approaches.
Despite a variety of AI applications, about one-third of these districts have no formal policies or guidance on AI use.
Some districts may be developing policies but are taking a go-slow, stakeholder-driven approach, says Bree Dusseault, principal and managing director at CRPE. These districts have yet to publicly release AI guidance, the study suggests.
A cautionary note: without having a public AI policy in place, schools take on risks — confusion in their community and possible legal or political repercussions, says Dusseault.
For example, a student’s parents sued a Massachusetts school district over their son’s use of AI for a research paper. The parents claim their son’s high school did not have AI policies in place regarding cheating or plagiarism at the time.
Even though 24 states have released AI guidance for schools, the CRPE report noted that “systemic AI adoption is still nascent.”
To drive national guidance and practices for AI use in K-12 for the 2024-25 school year, CRPE recommends early AI adopters:
- Pilot new ideas with AI tools and document what is and isn’t working.
- Invest in AI literacy for all adults and students in the district, including board members.
- Focus AI on the needs of students, families and the broader community.
- Specify how AI has the potential to address long-standing district challenges and how the district will ensure equitable access to AI resources.
K-12 Dive
