This article appeared as "Artificial Intelligence" in the Winter 2025 issue of Independent School.
How can schools use artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the learning experience? What tools and tasks are best, and what teacher training is needed to help educators integrate AI into their teaching practices? There’s so much for K–12 schools to consider when building an overall AI policy, including the legal issues at play.
Privacy and data security. Protecting students’ and sensitive school data is critical. Schools should carefully read the terms and conditions associated with any new AI tool and make sure it complies with school policies and any applicable state, federal, or international data privacy laws. Does the tool pull from the broader internet, or is it a closed system only for the school and its data? Does the tool use school data to further train its systems to provide answers to other customers? If a tool reserves the right to engage in more expansive uses of a school’s data, that’s a sign to be more cautious and refrain from putting sensitive or personally identifiable information into that system.
Accuracy and intellectual property. At times, these tools generate information that is not accurate. Before schools use AI-generated material in public-facing contexts, they should fact-check the information. Schools also need to understand copyright—when they want to retain their own copyright and when they might be using another creator’s content. Content creators are currently suing AI providers for using copyrighted work to train their tools, so it’s possible that users, including schools, could face copyright infringement claims down the road. Moreover, the U.S. Copyright Office has denied various attempts to register images that were created with AI on the grounds that there was not enough of a human role in their creation via the use of prompts.
Discrimination and bias. Schools should scrutinize any AI tools used to help make important decisions such as hiring or admission. In 2022, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice issued guidance reminding employers to vet and monitor AI tools to ensure that they don’t discriminate against individuals with disabilities in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Furthermore, new laws in Illinois (focused on employment decisions) and Colorado (focused on “high-risk” AI systems that make “consequential decisions” in areas including education and employment) are scheduled to take effect in 2026.