David BassinTeacher who builds with AI

Work sample

Sample AI guidelines for a school

A short set of guidelines a school could adapt: what students may do, what teachers check, how to handle suspected misuse, and what to ask before approving a tool.

  • For grades 6 to 12
  • Short read
  • Plain language

I wrote this sample for my portfolio. It is not my school's policy.

What we believe

  • AI is a tool for thinking, not a replacement for it. Students still draw the graph, read the source, and write the why.
  • Teachers stay responsible for anything that reaches a student, no matter who or what drafted it.
  • Honesty is the rule. When AI helped, say how.
  • Student privacy comes first. No tool is worth putting a student's information at risk.

For students

You may use AI to

  • brainstorm ideas or get unstuck
  • have a hard idea explained another way
  • make practice questions and check your answers
  • get feedback on a draft you wrote

You may not

  • turn in AI's writing as your own
  • use AI on a test or quiz unless your teacher says so
  • put another person's name or private information into an AI tool

Say how you used it

Add one line to the work: "I used [tool] to [what it did]." For example: "I used an AI tool to quiz me on Locke before I wrote this."

Not sure?

Ask your teacher before you use AI on an assignment. Each assignment should say whether AI is allowed and how.

For teachers

  • Check it like a grader. Read every AI-made question, slide, or handout before students see it: facts against real sources, numbers, pictures and their credits, and the reading level.
  • Keep student information out. No student names, grades, or IEP details in any AI tool the school has not approved. In an approved tool, share only what the task needs.
  • Say what is allowed. Mark each assignment: no AI, AI for help only, or AI welcome. Teach students the disclosure line.
  • Design work that shows thinking. Use drafts, in-class writing, short conversations, and graphs drawn by hand.

When a teacher suspects AI misuse

  • Detectors make mistakes. Never treat a detector score as proof on its own.
  • Talk first. Ask the student to walk through the work, show drafts, or explain a choice they made.
  • Teach before you punish the first time, unless the assignment clearly said no AI.

Before the school approves an AI tool

  • Student records: it protects them the way FERPA, the federal student records law, requires.
  • Students under 13: it follows COPPA, the federal children's privacy law.
  • Age limits: its terms allow the ages that will use it.
  • Training: it does not train its models on student data.
  • Deletion: the school can have student data deleted, and the company says where data is stored.
  • Control: the school manages accounts, ideally through school sign-in.
  • Access: it works with screen readers and captions.
  • Contract: the company signs the school's data privacy agreement. In New York, public schools need one under Education Law 2-d.
  • Cost: the school knows the price after any free period ends.

Keep it current

Read these guidelines again every semester with teachers, students, and parents. The tools change fast; the beliefs at the top should not.

See the teacher workshop plan