Schools in Palm Beach County are setting new AI rules for teachers and students

• The proposed rules would allow students to use AI for tasks such as research and writing, while existing academic honesty rules continue to apply.
• For staff, the policy requires a human to be involved in critical decisions such as assessment and discipline.
• The district is pursuing a flexible policy to adapt to new AI tools, with formal approval planned for February.

The Palm Beach County School District is working to become one of the first school districts in the country to develop a set of policies regulating the use of artificial intelligence for its students, teachers and staff.

District staff developed a draft policy at a recent Palm Beach County School Board meeting. They used an AI-generated presentation to walk board members through the highlights of the new policy.

“Very good,” said Superintendent Mike Burke after the presentation before turning to board members. “Do you still want to hear from the people?”

The district’s proposed rules would allow students to use AI for research and feedback, for personalized learning, writing and content creation, research and data analysis, and to convert text to speech and speech to text.

“We are not reinventing the wheel,” the presentation said. “Any misuse of AI is covered by our existing student code of conduct. The same rules for academic honesty still apply.”

Violating the district’s rules on academic honesty may result in a zero grade on an assignment and a parental notification. Repeated violations may lead to more severe sanctions, including suspension.

When can Palm Beach County teachers use AI and how?

For teachers and staff, the proposed rules would require them to use only those AI tools that are “aligned with district technology and ethical standards.”

The proposed rules also include some of what the presentation described as “non-negotiables” for faculty and staff.

“AI cannot be the sole decision maker for critical functions such as assessment or discipline,” the presentation said. “A human must be aware at all times. Staff may only use district-approved AI tools. This ensures that human judgment remains at the center of education.”

The district will expand the development of its AI policy in early December with a view to formal adoption on February 18.

“The team has been working on this for several months,” Burke told board members.

“This was an initiative we added to our strategic plan. We felt it was so important that we master AI and how to use it safely and effectively in our classrooms and workplaces. Many school districts have not yet developed AI policies, so we are kind of ahead of the curve here.”

How other school districts are tackling the use of AI

School districts in Virginia, Washington, Colorado, Texas and Maryland have adopted AI policies, according to Google’s AI search tool, which cited Education Week and two other sources for that information. Several other school districts in other states, including one in Seminole County near Orlando, are developing AI policies.

The University of Florida has created an AI education task force that has developed some guidelines. But the state has not passed legislation describing how AI can and cannot be used.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has expressed concerns about how AI will be used by older students.

“Are students at colleges and universities going to use artificial intelligence just to write their theses?” DeSantis said in July. “Should we even think?”

The governor vetoed legislation that would require the Commerce Department to conduct an AI study, but he approved other AI initiatives, including a $2 million program for the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to use AI to help find and remove invasive Burmese pythons from the Everglades.

Adam Miller, chief performance officer for the Palm Beach County School District, said district staff are aware of the need for flexibility in setting AI rules.

“AI is growing at a very rapid pace,” he said. “We don’t know what new AI tools will come to market, but we do know that new AI tools are coming. That’s why we purposely designed this policy to be general and flexible so that we can innovate as those new tools come out.”

Two board members — Matthew Jay Lane and Edwin Ferguson — said they want more clarity in the rules, especially for teachers.

“It would be good to give teachers guidance on when AI can be used and when it cannot,” Lane said.

Rebecca Smykla, the district’s director of instructional technology, said staff “specifically wanted this policy to give our teachers the freedom to make that decision in their classrooms for when AI could and could not be used by students. However, in our training, there would be some guidelines once we adopted this policy.”

Ferguson echoed Lane’s concerns, citing the possible example of a teacher at one school allowing broad use of AI on an assignment, while a teacher at another school limits the use of AI. Grades and scholarship opportunities could be affected, Ferguson said.

“If we’re as black and white with a policy as we can be, that seems to me to be the best practice,” Ferguson said.

Burke said he understood their concerns.

“The points made by both Mr Lane and Mr Ferguson are well taken,” he said. “We want to be as clear as possible. We want to try to eliminate as much subjectivity as possible. We’re going to have to train everyone on this, so we have to make sure it’s clear.”

Wayne Washington is a journalist who covers education for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.