Oh boy. This one’s a biggie.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is officially enrolled for class. 🤖 What does that mean for the future of education? We really don’t know. But for now, what is Unionville-Chadds Ford School District doing about artificial intelligence at school?

Let’s start by acknowledging that this is a really hard question, and one to which no one has a definitively correct answer. It’s also not a question that will be fully answered in the foreseeable future. Incorporating and managing AI in an educational curriculum will continue to evolve and be redefined over time.

💭 This somehow feels like a long road moving at the speed of light that we will travel together.

I’m not particularly bullish on or adverse to AI. I expect it will be a powerful force in our future and also something we need to ruthlessly protect humanity from. I hope a passionate commitment to humanity and human connectedness doesn’t get lost in the pursuit of what’s artificially possible.

The district seems to be cautiously bullish, if that’s not too much of an oxymoron, on incorporating AI into the school experience. They are trying to be thoughtful while also being future-forward.

Where is the district today, and where is it headed?

The district is already using artificial intelligence in many ways, as are many of us. As discussed at the January 12, 2026¹, school board workshop, almost all teachers already use AI to help develop lesson plans or perform other parts of their jobs.

Students are definitely using AI too, whether it’s allowed or not. As students explore more ways to use AI for their homework and push the envelope to see what they can get away with (because that’s what kids do 😉), teachers and administrators are plugging “holes” and rethinking how to build a framework around AI as an educational tool. 🔨 For now, it’s like a giant game of whack-an-agent-mole or something.

The district’s IT department uses programs such as Gaggle and Linewize (both of which incorporate AI) to monitor students’ activity on school-issued devices, like iPads and Chromebooks. These tools use artificial intelligence to identify potential risks or missteps based on students’ device use (what they type, which websites they visit, etc.). I suspect we all agree that these programs address an important element of safety monitoring.

Yet there’s also a really challenging line to draw between appropriate safety monitoring and excessive surveillance, including the capture and use of personally identifiable information. When programs like Gaggle and Linewize monitor every search and keystroke students make on their electronic devices, how much of that information is retained and for how long? What do those companies do with that information? I’m sure the answers to some of these questions are in the licensing contracts. But I also think the implications are so vast that it’s unlikely everything is enumerated in a single legal document.

What’s in the district’s current AI policy draft?

As AI has become more prevalent, the school district administration has developed a draft policy (815.2 Artificial Intelligence) to help the school community use artificial intelligence tools and agents responsibly and ethically. The policy was developed by a collaborative group of district teachers and administrators. I hope and anticipate that the artificial intelligence task force will broaden its membership to include parents and other relevant community representatives who can meaningfully inform the integration of AI into district curricula and policy.

Update: The UCF School Board formally approved Policy 815.2 at the March 23, 2026, Regular Board Meeting. No material changes to the draft policy initially referenced in this article were incorporated into the final policy. The Red/Yellow/Green framework discussed below was unchanged.

Based on the review of the policy and the discussion at the school board meeting, the district administration appears bullish yet realistic about preparing students to be fluent in a world where AI is increasingly present and influential. They seem to believe it’s important to tackle AI head-on and help students manage its ethical and practical challenges, rather than shying away from its likely potent power on our future.

In addition to language about ongoing revision and consideration of AI policy over time and related privacy matters (such as FERPA), the policy centers on a “🔴 red, 🟡 yellow, 🟢 green” framework for the use of AI in school curricula and district-sponsored activities. From the draft 815.2 policy:

“Red = AI tools are not permitted on this activity.

Yellow = Students are required to obtain permission before using AI tools on this activity.

Green = Students are encouraged to use AI tools in this activity, but must first discuss how they plan to use them.”

To add color to the descriptions (no pun intended), activities in the 🔴 red category might include elements of critical thinking or creative writing. Students need to learn to do this on their own. 🟡 Yellow areas may allow students to use AI as an assistant to help brainstorm or outline a piece of work, while they can’t use AI to complete the assignment entirely. AI tools that fall into the 🟢 green category might include spell checkers, grammar assistants, and online calculators. Of course, there will be muddy areas where it’s unclear exactly which color category applies, but this framework offers a starting point for guidance.

What can the district learn from first movers using AI in schools?

Alpha School, an AI-first private school system based in Texas, has some lessons to offer. I’ve been intrigued by their methods and structure. But their integrated use of AI, particularly large language models and generative AI, highlights some of the risks we face in making AI a larger part of a school curriculum.

I believe they have the best of intentions. And yet, the ethical considerations and educational quality struggles described in this article highlight the challenges all educational institutions face as artificial intelligence weaves its way into every aspect of our lives. AI comes with a potentially risky trifecta of sloppiness, stealing, and surveillance.

Among concerns noted in the article:

“Alpha School, an “AI-powered private school” that heavily relies on AI to teach students and can cost up to $65,000 a year, is AI-generating faulty lesson plans that internal company documentation find sometimes do “more harm than good,” and scraping data from a variety of other online courses without permission to train its own AI, according to former Alpha School employees and internal company documents.”

While these concerns won’t all apply directly to our school district right now, they present challenging issues that will almost certainly rear their ugly heads as AI becomes more integrated into the school curriculum.

How does the district ensure that the use of AI by teachers to develop lesson plans is producing accurate content and quality educational work materials?
When AI is allowed for student use, how do students and teachers ensure the output is accurate and appropriate?
How do you define academic honesty?

I’m sure you can think of more questions that will arise as AI use becomes more prevalent in our school, beyond those already appearing in schools like Alpha School.

Related to student surveillance:

“My investigation into Alpha School also reveals that the massive amounts of data the company collects on students, including videos of them, is stored in a Google Drive folder that anyone with the link—even if they’ve left the company, or if it was sent to them—could access. In turn, that sensitive material is viewed by more Alpha School employees than students and parents may realize.

Former Alpha School employees told me that the company’s increasing reliance on generative AI in every aspect of its operation, as well as the constant monitoring and tracking of every student’s mouse movements, is making students anxious and does not always provide the quality of education Alpha School advertises to parents.” (source)

The Unionville-Chadds Ford School District already uses AI tools to monitor electronic device use, as I discussed above. Questions we might consider:

As AI tools are used to monitor the use of Chromebooks and iPads, what happens to that information? Who has access to it? How long is it stored? How do we know?
When AI tools become part of a school program or educational activity, how do we monitor what information they retain, how that information is stored, used, and accessed?
How is constant monitoring impacting student health and wellness, particularly mental health? How does it impact learning outcomes?

As parents and caregivers, we’re tempted to use a panopticon of safety monitoring to address our emotional uncertainty about our children’s safety. I get it. But we can’t lose sight of the immense stress that panopticon-level surveillance places on those being constantly observed (in this case, our children) and the personal data risks of capturing and reviewing every click, keystroke, and mouse movement on every Chromebook in the district.

👀 Call me crazy, but this becomes ever more consequential with each step our government takes toward centralized control, corporate capture, and authoritarianism.

How the district handles AI will be a work in progress for years (at least) to come. I’m glad to see they are making a concerted effort to develop a framework to guide the analysis of potential use cases and their integration into curricula and other school programs.

I’d love to know what you think is important to consider as AI becomes omnipresent in our lives and, consequently, in our schools. What should the district be thinking about as we head into the next age of technology advancement?