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.
Requirements
The district’s existing policies on acceptable use of computers (4526 and 8630) and academic honesty (5312) apply to student use of GenAI. Additionally, see the following requirements:
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 must disclose when AI is used and how it was used.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 student 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 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. Further, staff must receive permission from an administrator before using any GenAI program that requires the acceptance of terms and conditions.
Sensitive or Other Confidential Information
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 (see policy 8635).
2. Staff information: anything that would be protected by Education Law 2-d (see policy 8635), 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).
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.
Cross-ref: 1120, School District Records
4526, Computer and Networked Information Resources
4526.1, Internet Safety
5300, Code of Conduct
5312, Prohibited Conduct
5500, Student Records
8630, Computer Resources and Data Management
8635, Information and Data Privacy, Security, Breach and Notification
8650, School District Compliance with Copyright Law
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
8 NYCRR Part 121
Adoption date: July 1, 2024