AI for Educators and Staff

Responsibilities for AI Use

Ethical and Responsible Use

As role models, it is imperative that our staff exemplify ethical and responsible usage of GenAI tools. This includes maintaining transparency by appropriately citing or disclosing the use of GenAI and ensuring the content generated is suitable for educational purposes. Additionally, staff must not enter confidential data into GenAI tools, including but not limited to student record information, confidential employee information, and any identifying information. As a further precaution, staff are advised to turn off chat history and data training in the settings of any GenAI tool used in their professional practice.

Tool Approval and Use

Staff members are required to use only GenAI tools that have been vetted and approved by CPS, as reflected in the CPS Ed Tech Catalog. A tool’s approval within the Ed Tech Catalog reflects that it meets the district’s standards for privacy, security, and confidentiality in compliance with all applicable state and federal laws. However, it does not reflect that the tool meets the district’s academic standards for verification, bias, or fairness. Educators and staff should refer to the badges associated with each tool to understand when a tool may not meet these standards. This policy ensures that the tools align with our educational goals and adhere to our rigorous data privacy and security standards.

Age Appropriate Usage

GenAI tools, whether publicly available or subscription based, typically set age restrictions in their Privacy Policy or Terms and Conditions. Before encouraging your students to interact with any tools, make sure to review the terms to ensure compliance with them. Below is a list of mainstream tools and their respective restrictions for your awareness.

Tool (company)	No Access	Parental Consent	No Permission Needed
ChatGPT (OpenAI)	Under 13	Parental consent must be obtained for students 13–17	18+
Claude (Anthropic)	Under 18	N/A - no access under 18	18+
Gemini (Google)	Under 18	N/A - no access under 18	18+
Copilot (Microsoft)	Under 18	N/A - no access under 18	18+
Perplexity	Under 13	Parental consent must be obtained for students 13–17	18+

Monitoring Student Use

Staff using GenAI tools with students are responsible for ensuring that students engage with these tools responsibly, maintaining an awareness of age limitations and permissions, and clearly communicating expectations to students and families. School staff should report instances of misuse to their principal or designee, and be prepared to develop alternate activities that do not require the use of GenAI for students who lose the privilege of GenAI access or whose families do not consent.

GenAI detection software can be a tool to identify potential plagiarism or AI-generated work, but staff and administrators are encouraged to use it with caution and with awareness of its limitations. These tools are not foolproof and can frequently produce false positives, incorrectly flagging student work. For example, current AI detection software can disproportionately flag work completed by English Learners (ELs) due to linguistic differences or patterns that the software misinterprets as AI-generated content. Overreliance on these tools could lead to unfounded accusations of academic dishonesty, erode trust between teachers and students, and unfairly penalize certain groups of students. It is recommended instead to prioritize a holistic assessment of student work, considering multiple factors like the writing process, individual student progress, and direct conversations, rather than relying solely on GenAI detection software in an effort to ensure that students are maintaining academic integrity.

Opportunities to Incorporate GenAI in the Classroom

As with any new student-facing technology, the introduction of GenAI tools invites educators to consider how GenAI can further the underlying goals of their activities and assignments instead of impeding them. Educators may want to consider how activities can be modified in the following ways:

Elementary School	Without GenAI	With GenAI
Literacy	Students complete a character analysis after reading a book.	After reading a book, the teacher uses GenAI to create an interactive character persona and conducts a teacher-led, whole-class “interview” where students can ask questions about the character’s motivations and feelings during the story.
Math	Teacher uses generic word problems provided by the curriculum for all students.	Teacher creates customized word problems tailored to the current unit of study and individual students’ unique needs and interests for intervention and continuing practice.
Science	Students research an animal species and create a poster or presentation using images from the internet.	Students create prompts describing the habitat, diet, and survival adaptations of an animal species, which the teacher inputs into an AI image generator to create visuals for posters or presentations. Students evaluate the accuracy of the images as a whole class or in small group discussions.
Social Science	Students watch videos and complete worksheets about the role of community leaders.	Students take on the roles of civic leaders and participate in a teacher-led discussion in which an AI chatbot is prompted to ask students age-appropriate questions about how they would set up an ideal community.

Middle School	Without GenAI	With GenAI
Literacy	Students use various levels of background knowledge and content understanding to make inferences about characters’ points of view in a story.	Students use GenAI under teacher supervision to explore point of view by generating descriptions of the plot from various characters in a story and comparing/contrasting them in small group discussions.
Math	Teacher manually designs and delivers interventions for individual students.	Students engage with GenAI tutors under teacher supervision to target and strengthen developing skills.
Science	Teacher gathers materials and sets up physical lab equipment for students to conduct experiments.	Under supervision, students use GenAI to carry out virtual experiments, hypothesizing, and testing outcomes without the need of physical lab equipment.
Social Science	Students write a report about their cultural heritage.	Students work under teacher supervision with an AI image generator to create and critique images reflecting their personal cultural heritage, which are then shared in presentations or multimedia projects.

High School	Without GenAI	With GenAI
Literacy	Students must wait for teacher feedback before revising an essay or report.	After reading a book, the teacher uses GenAI to create an interactive character persona and conducts a teacher-led, whole-class “interview” where students can ask questions about the character’s motivations and feelings during the story.
Math	Students are exposed to limited descriptions and definitions of complex mathematical concepts in a lecture or textbook.	Students use GenAI tools independently to explore advanced mathematical concepts and ask questions until they achieve understanding (e.g., descriptions of the types of problems that can be solved using derivatives).
Science	Students spend weeks conducting research projects and conducting physical experiments.	Teachers facilitate unsupervised use of GenAI by students to conduct in-depth research projects, utilizing AI to quickly gather data, analyze results, and simulate experiments.
Social Science	Students conduct internet research on current events.	Students independently use a generative search engine to conduct an in-depth analysis of current events, exploring a variety of perspectives on the issue and synthesizing these into a presentation or debate.