Since the release of ChatGPT to the public in November 2022, the number of AI tools has skyrocketed, and there are now many advocates for the potential changes AI can cause in education.

But districts have not been as fast in providing teachers with training. As a result, many are experimenting without any guidance, an .

To learn about how teachers and other educators can protect student data and abide by the law when using AI tools, Chalkbeat consulted documents and interviewed specialists from school districts, nonprofits, and other groups. Here are nine suggestions from experts.

Consult with your school district about AI

Navigating the details about the privacy policies in each tool can be challenging for a teacher. Some districts list tools that they have vetted or with which they have contracts.

Give preference to these tools, if possible, and check if your district has any recommendations about how to use them. When a tool has a contract with a school or a district, they are supposed to protect students鈥� data and follow national and state law, but always check if your district has any recommendations on how to use the tool. Checking with your school鈥檚 IT or education technology department is also a good option.

It is also essential to investigate if your school or district has guidelines or policies for the general use of AI. These documents usually review privacy risks and ethical questions.

Check for reviews about AI platforms鈥� safety

Organizations like and review ed-tech tools and provide feedback on their safety.

Be careful when platforms say they comply with laws like the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, and the Children鈥檚 Online Privacy Protection Rule. According to the law, the school is ultimately responsible for children鈥檚 data and must be aware of any information it shares with a third party.

Study the AI platform鈥檚 privacy policy and terms

The privacy policy and the terms of use should provide some answers about how a company uses the data it collects from you. Make sure to read them carefully, and look for some of the following information:

• What information does the platform collect?
• How does the platform use the collected data? Is it used to determine which ads it will show you? Does it share data with any other company or platform?
• For how long does it keep the collected data?
• Is the data it collects used to train the AI model?

The list of questions that Common Sense Media uses for their privacy evaluations is .

You should avoid signing up for platforms that collect a broad volume of data or that are not clear in their policies. One potential red flag: vague claims about 鈥渞etaining personal information for as long as necessary鈥� and 鈥渟haring data with third parties to provide services.鈥�

Bigger AI platforms can be safer

Big companies like OpenAI, Google, Meta, and others are under more scrutiny: NGOs, reporters, and politicians tend to investigate their privacy policies more frequently. They also have bigger teams and resources that allow them to invest heavily in compliance with privacy regulations. For these reasons, they tend to have better safeguards than small companies or start-ups.

You still have to be careful. Most of these platforms are not explicitly intended for educational purposes, making them less likely to create specific policies regarding student or teacher data.

Use the tools as an assistant, not a replacement

Even though these tools provide better results when you input more information, try to use them for tasks that don鈥檛 require much information about your students.

AI tools can help provide suggestions on how to ask questions about a book, set up document templates, like an Individualized Educational Program plan or a behavioral assessment, or create assessment rubrics.

But even tasks that can seem mundane can increase risks. For example, providing the tool with a list of students and their grades on a specific assignment and asking it to organize it in alphabetical order could represent a violation of student privacy.

Turn on maximum privacy settings for AI platforms

Some tools allow you to adjust your privacy settings. Look online for tutorials on the best private settings for the tool that you are using and how to activate them. , for example, allows users to stop it from using your data to train AI models.

Doing this does not necessarily make AI tools completely safe or compliant with student privacy regulations.

Never input personal information to AI platforms

Even if you take all the steps above, do not input student information. Information that is restricted can include:

• Personal information: a student鈥檚 name, Social Security number, education ID, names of parents or other relatives, address and phone number, location of birth, or any other information that can be used to identify a student.
• Academic records: reports about absences, grades, and student behaviors in the school, student work, and teachers鈥� feedback on and assessments of student work.

This may be harder than it sounds.

If teachers upload student work to a platform to get help with grading, for example, they should remove all identification, including the student鈥檚 name, and replace it with an alias or random number that can鈥檛 be traced back to the student. It鈥檚 also wise to ensure the students haven鈥檛 included any personal information, like their place of birth, where they live or personal details about their families, friends, religious or political inclination, sexual orientation, and club affiliations.

One exception is for platforms approved by the school or the district and holding contracts with them.

Be transparent with others about using AI

Communicate with your school supervisors, principal, parents, and students about when and how you use AI in your work. That way, everyone can ask questions and bring up concerns you may not know about.

It is also a good way to model behavior for students. For example, if teachers ask students to disclose when they use AI to complete assignments, being transparent with them in turn about how teachers use AI might foster a better classroom environment.

If uncertain, ask AI platforms to delete information

In some states, the law says platforms must delete users鈥� information if they request it. And some companies will delete it even if you aren鈥檛 in one of these states.

Deleting the data may be challenging and not solve all of the problems caused by misusing AI. Some companies may take a long time to respond to deletion requests or find loopholes in order to avoid deleting it.

The tips listed above come from the , published by the American Federation of Teachers; the report by the U.S. Department of Education鈥檚 Office of Educational Technology; and the used by Common Sense Media to carry out its privacy evaluations.

Additional help came from Calli Schroeder, senior counsel and global privacy counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center; Brandon Wilmart, director of educational technology at Moore Public Schools in Oklahoma; and Anjali Nambiar, education research manager at Learning Collider.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at . 

As the pandemic came to an end and students returned to in-person learning, the national sentiment around school safety and security grew dire. 

After more than a year of learning from home and away from their friends, frenemies and rivals, educators reported that children brought back to school with them newfound behavioral challenges. 

But new federal data 鈥� including on-campus assaults, bullying and thefts 鈥� complicate that narrative. Even as students鈥� mental health needs surged, the numbers suggest that school crime continued a downward trend that鈥檚 been ongoing for more than a decade. 

These 10 charts explain how schools have grown less violent since COVID. 

In the news

• Benched: A district court judge in Detroit has been temporarily barred from hearing cases after he ordered a teenager visiting his courtroom to be handcuffed after he caught her sleeping. Turns out, the girl struggled to stay awake during the field trip because she lacked a permanent home. |

• A California student privacy law approved in 2022, which prohibits social media companies from using children鈥檚 personal information, likely violates the First Amendment, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled. |

• Not liable: A Texas jury found the parents of the gunman who carried out the 2018 school shooting in Santa Fe, which killed 10 and injured 13 others, could not be held legally responsible for the mayhem. Victims鈥� families alleged the parents acted negligently when they failed to prevent the attack. The shooter was found mentally unfit to stand trial and remains hospitalized. |

• A failure by the San Diego school district to protect kids from sexual harassment and abuse led to “serial perpetration,鈥� a federal civil rights investigation found. |

• 鈥�Juvenile Crime, Adult Time鈥�: Florida children charged as adults for felony crimes get longer sentences on average than older, adult offenders, a Miami Herald investigation found. |

• ZeroEyes, an AI-powered gun detection company, announced a partnership with the New York Boards of Cooperative Educational Services that gives school districts across the state access to 鈥減re-negotiated, discounted prices.鈥�  |

• Calendar invite: The National Center for Youth Law will host an Aug. 27 webinar on youth voting rights, where experts will 鈥渟hare their insights into empowering 16 and 17 year olds to participate in our democracy.鈥� |

• In Las Vegas, a weapons detection system caused substantial delays at a high school football game, frustrating dozens of students and parents who were left waiting away from the field well past kickoff. |

• Gaggle, a surveillance tool that monitors students鈥� online communications, has been rolled out in Ohio鈥檚 biggest school district. |
  • Read my Gaggle investigation: Meet the Gatekeepers of Students鈥� Private Lives 

• A new Tennessee law lets teachers carry guns to class, but so far there haven鈥檛 been any takers. |

• Google Classroom 鈥渦ndermines children鈥檚 privacy and data protection, potentially infringing children’s other rights,鈥� according to new research. |

• The Department of Homeland Security is out with a new guide designed to help educators spot the warning signs of online child sexual exploitation and abuse. |

• Between 2020 and 2022, the number of youth locked up in juvenile justice facilities fell by a staggering 75%. |

• Hooray for heroes: A Colorado school bus driver is being credited with saving the lives of more than a dozen kids after the bus went up in flames during the commute home. |

ICYMI @The74

• My colleague Amanda Geduld caught up with teen activist Rhea Maniar to discuss how abortion could prompt a surge in youth voter turnout.

• The Supreme Court won鈥檛 stop states that refuse to enforce new Biden administration Title IX rules that sought to protect LGBTQ+ youth from school-based discrimination.

Who Wrote Texas鈥檚 Million Dollar, Bible-Infused Curriculum? The State Won鈥檛 Say.

Opinion: Fifty years after the passage of FERPA,  the primary federal student privacy law needs a refresh for the AI era.

Emotional support

I hope you find my roundup on the latest school crime stats to be stimulating. 

Matilda did not.