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Indianapolis Public Schools has a new districtwide AI policy aimed at improving educators’ efficiency and addressing concerns about privacy and security.
The policy, which the school board approved unanimously Thursday, applies only to teachers and staff, and does not include guidance on student use of artificial-intelligence technology. It lays out acceptable uses of AI, which include generating quiz questions or practice materials under teacher supervision, enhancing instructional materials, and drafting communications, but restricts users to district-approved AI tools.
“Eventually AI is not going to be a choice. Right now, it’s a choice,” said Ashley Cowger, the district’s chief systems officer. “And what we are wanting to do in IPS is establish some clear guardrails for what we know right now.”
The adoption of the policy follows the first phase of a pilot program in which 20 staff members used a district-approved AI tool throughout the year. The second phase of the pilot will be broader but still only include teachers and staff. In the second phase, participants will use Google Gemini, at a cost of $122 per person, according to Cowger.
Cowger said the list of acceptable uses was developed using results from the pilot program, which found that AI could help staff save time on complex, administrative tasks.
“We have one school principal who has dove in headfirst with generative AI and has completely transformed his master schedule in secondary school,” Cowger said. “That gave a lot of time back to the team — not having to use little magnetic tiles on a whiteboard to figure out how to do all their sections and courses for their school.”
The new policy lists equity and inclusion, transparency, privacy and data protection, human oversight, and accountability as guiding principles in implementing AI.
To ensure security, teachers and staff will only be permitted to use AI tools approved by the district. Some people in the district are already using free generative AI tools on their own, and Cowger warned this could compromise student data, including special education plans.
Staff will have to sign responsible-use agreements, which include guidelines such as disallowing loading a student’s full Individualized Education Program into a generative AI tool.
Staff training is an important element of the district’s plan for AI. Participants in the second phase of the pilot will attend monthly professional development trainings on AI use and implementation, and there will be an online repository of professional development trainings available to staff at all times.
“We do not at any point encourage someone going in blindly to using AI,” Cowger said. “It can be a slippery slope, which is why we have put a lot of effort into developing the professional learning roadmap for AI for the pilot users for next school year.”
The new policy also calls for the creation of an AI advisory board to monitor trends in district AI use and continue to develop best practices.
Samantha Camire is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Samantha at scamire@chalkbeat.org.
