8636 Artificial Intelligence

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) has permeated aspects of everyday life, including school district operations, such as email spam filters, navigation apps, search engines, speech recorders, spelling and grammar checkers, and word processing auto-complete suggestions, often embedded into commonly used software. Generative artificial intelligence is a type of AI technology that can quickly generate large amounts of high-quality, convincingly authentic, human-like content, such as language, computer code, data analysis, images, video, and audio, in response to a prompt, based on data that it was trained on. 

The widespread availability and use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) presents both challenges and opportunities for the district. Care must be taken to address and mitigate the challenges, and maximize the opportunities, to improve student learning and district operations. 

Acknowledgements

The district acknowledges that many students are able to access GenAI outside of school, and may be able to use GenAI to complete school assignments. However, not all students are able or willing to do so, and should not be penalized for not using GenAI. 

The district further acknowledges that the tools to detect the use of GenAI accurately, consistently and fairly may not be available, may quickly become obsolete, or may be biased against English Language Learners. 

The district also acknowledges that the data used to train GenAI models is not usually made public, may be biased, and may violate copyright laws. The responses generated by GenAI may be biased, wrong, or violate copyright laws. 

Guidelines

All district policies and regulations apply when using GenAI, and GenAI may not be used to violate or circumvent district policies and regulations. The district's existing policies on acceptable use of computers (4526) and student conduct, including academic honesty (5300) apply to student use of GenAI. Additionally, the following guidelines are in place: 

1. The Board supports including the principles of responsible and effective use of GenAI as it relates to the curriculum as well as life outside of or beyond school.
2. Students are responsible for their own work, and any errors it may contain, and must cite the sources they use as required by the classroom teacher.
3. The Board respects the professional capacity of the instructional staff to assign work that is less susceptible to student use of GenAI to circumvent learning, and allow for multiple methods for students to demonstrate competence and understanding. 
4. Instructional staff must be clear about their expectations for student use of GenAI in assignments. Staff who suspect a student has not done an assignment on their own can request that the student demonstrate their knowledge of the material in other ways, to the same extent they already do.

Any use of GenAI in schools, on school networks/computers, or for school purposes must be compliant with Education Law 2-d and its regulations, particularly whenever student and staff Personally Identifiable Information is disclosed, including third-party agreements where applicable. Staff must consult with the district’s Data Protection Officer to determine compliance with Education Law 2-d. Staff must also be mindful that some GenAI tools are free and others are not, that some GenAI tools are not permitted to be used by those under certain ages, or require parent permission, and that some students and/or parents may not wish to use GenAI tools or input their work into them. 

Employees may utilize GenAI tools, with approval from their supervisor, consistent with this policy and the district’s Acceptable Use of Computers policy(ies), to complement and/or improve teaching or work output, while they remain responsible for all work they produce, and must always review any work generated by GenAI.

Requirements

Because any information used as input in a GenAI may be used by that system and potentially made available to other users of the system, district users must not input any sensitive, copyrighted, proprietary, or confidential district information, consistent with applicable state and federal laws and district policies, including but not limited to the following: 

1. Student information: anything that would be protected by FERPA (see policy 5500) or Education Law 2-d.
2. Staff information: anything that would be protected by Education Law 2-d or Labor Law 203-d, or other confidential personnel information.
3. School district information: anything that would be withheld from a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request (see policy 1120), or private information under State Technology Law §208 which would require notification in the event of a breach.

While AI tools may be used to enhance analysis and decision-making by district employees and/or contractors, AI may never be used as a substitute for human judgment; a human must always review the recommendations and make the final decision. Where AI is used to aid in decision-making by district employees or contractors, users must document the use of AI. 

Additionally, users of GenAI must exercise caution before inputting any work created by district students or employees. When using GenAI for school purposes, users must avoid violating copyright protections, in consultation with legal counsel where appropriate. 

 

Cross-ref: 0115, Student Harassment and Bullying Prevention and Intervention 

1120, School District Records 

4526, Computer Use in Instruction 

4526.1, Internet Safety 

5300, Code of Conduct 

5500, Student Records

8635, Information and Data Privacy, Security, Breach and Notification 

Ref: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, as amended, 20 USC 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99 

Public Officers Law §84 et seq. (Freedom of Information Law) 

Education Law §2-d 

Labor Law §203-d 

State Technology Law §208 

8 NYCRR Part 121 

 

Approved by the Board of Education: 04/23/25

 

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