AI’s Influence in the Classroom

Author: Ryan Kemp, JD

July 22, 2026

[Image credit: Towfiqu barbhuiya/Unsplash]

AI’s Influence in the Classroom

It is no surprise that students have been using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for their schoolwork across all age groups, and that a majority of schools have a policy regarding the use of AI for students use. Chegg’s global study found that 80% of undergraduate students were using generative AI to support their studies.  The Center for Democracy and Technology reported that 86% of students had used AI in the 2024-2025 school year on the 9th-12th grade level. Each year the number of students that are using AI in their school work has been increasing, with no signs of slowing down. However, what about teachers’ use of AI? How are teachers using AI in their classrooms? Are there protective enough policies in place for students and their data?

How Teachers Use AI

More and more teachers are using AI in various ways in their classroom. The  most common way teachers are using AI is to develop content and curriculum. The Center for Democracy and Technology reported that 69% of teachers were using AI in this way. AI across all  different professional fields is being pitched as a tool to save time and to save money. AI companies are developing models specifically geared towards teachers and teaching curriculum; one model is called BriskAI. The model can generate quizzes, plan curriculum for a subject, or even grade a batch of work from a student and provide feedback. BriskAI produces videos demonstrating their product. One video demonstrates how a teacher can provide feedback to an entire class, and even select feedback style. Ranging from “Glows and Grows” to “Next Steps.” The benefit of using an AI model for grading is that it will save the teacher a lot of time. However, it skirts a very thin line of replacing the teacher and the human element that historically speaking, was essential to effective teaching. These types of AI tools and models raise practical, ethical, and legal concerns for everyone in the education system. How teachers use AI will have effects on the profession itself, as well as the students and how they learn. Across the globe different educational institutions and governments are producing policy and guidelines for schools to follow.

There are a few concerns for AI and its implementation into the classroom. The most pressing concern is the speed of policy and guidelines so that teachers and school districts handle the rise of AI safely. With the growing number of teachers using various AI models, policy becomes more important. Policy acts as the guide rails for teachers that makes sure the teachers are using appropriate models and are not breaking laws or disrupting privacy concerns. The United States Department of Education has published A Toolkit for Safe, Ethical, and Equitable AI Integration. In it they discuss an array of ethical and practical concerns for AI in the classroom. The Department advises that school districts build a “task force.” The Department states that “the Department urges educational leaders to establish a task force in their institution (or another similarly chartered council, committee, or team) to respond on an ongoing basis.” Ironically, the Department advises to rely on AI tools to create the task force charter. They state that “the Department found that freely available GenAI tools can create an initial outline for a task force charter.” Schools are providing some training, and guidelines for teachers use of AI, but it is unclear to what extent the training covers. Without published policy from the school, students and parents have no way of knowing how their teacher is using AI. However, training to some extent is on the rise. According to the Institute of Education Sciences, “about two-thirds of public schools (67 percent) provided training on the use of AI to all or some teachers, staff, and/or administrators this school year, and 26 percent provided training to all teachers.” This is up from 10% which was reported in 2023, conducted through a survey from UNESCO.

Internationally, the statistics vary. According to another UNESCO article, “19% of respondents indicated that their institutions already have a formal AI policy, while a further 42% reported that AI guiding frameworks are under development. This trend is seen across both public and private institutions, though with regional variation: around 70% of institutions in Europe and North America have or are developing guidance, compared to 45% in Latin America and the Caribbean.” However, given the context of how many teachers are already using AI, 1 in 5 schools having a formal policy is not enough given the extent that AI is being used.

A good example of a school district implementing an AI policy is Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD). LBUSD published a document titled “General Guidance On Artificial Intelligence. The document states:

Each AI user (adult or student) is responsible to make it clear when AI is used to produce an assignment, work product, or when a user is interacting with an AI agent or chatbot. AI use must be disclosed and explained. Administrators are encouraged to update Parent Guidelines and other resources for parents, guardians, and caregivers as AI utilization evolves. Teachers are encouraged to update their course syllabi to include instructions and guidelines for student use of AI in coursework. LBUSD intends to publish a website related to the use of AI for students and staff.

The document also goes into detail about privacy, bias, and safety, and gives examples on appropriate and inappropriate use of AI for teachers and students. The most important aspect of the document is that it provides a foundation for students, teachers, and parents to understand the risks of AI and its use. Additionally having a policy published allows concerns to be raised and addressed by the community that it is affecting.

Personally Identifiable Information

One of the largest ethical concerns about the use of AI in the classroom is access to student data and personally identifiable information. If a teacher uses an AI model like BriskAI featured above to grade essays, they are giving information about the student to the model. This information could be stored, leaked, or even sold. This raises an interesting question about consent about personal data. Should there be a policy in place for students' consent before using an AI model to grade their work? The University of Cambridge has addressed this directly for their examiners. Cambridge published their policy for examiners and grading student work with generative AI. Cambridge states that “examiners may not use tools, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google Bard, or Microsoft Copilot, to analyse work submitted by students and provide written feedback. Due to lack of clarity and uncertainty of how these tools use and/or store input data, it is not permitted to share student IP and submitted work without permission from the student.” Cambridge focuses on the consent of the student and identifies that there is so much uncertainty on how different AI models use or store input data. Students should have the right to their own data and decide if it is okay to be uploaded to an AI model.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was implemented to give students with special needs rights to certain protections and services in the United States. § 300.622 states that “parental consent must be obtained before personally identifiable information is disclosed to parties, other than officials of participating agencies in accordance with paragraph (b)(1) of this section, unless the information is contained in education records, and the disclosure is authorized without parental consent under 34 CFR part 99.” What this means is that before disclosing any personally identifiable information to third parties related to the students disability, the individual/teacher must get parental consent. The Center for Democracy and Technology reported that 57% of licensed special education teachers use AI in some way for an IEP or 504 plan. This use of AI models for drafting an IEP could be in violation of the IDEA act if there is personally identifiable information about the student.   

The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is another layer of protection the United States has in place for student information. FERPA states that “under FERPA, a school generally may not disclose PII from an eligible student’s education records to a third party unless the eligible student has provided prior written consent.” An important term here under FERPA is eligible student. FERPA states that “when a student reaches 18 years of age or attends an institution of postsecondary education at any age, the student becomes an 'eligible student,' and all rights under FERPA transfer from the parent to the student.” For K-12 students, FERPA rights are generally held by the parents until the student becomes an "eligible student” as defined in FERPA. This is important because if a teacher uses an AI model that exposes personally identifiable information, the teacher could be in violation of FERPA if the teacher does not get parental consent if the student is in K-12.

Wrapping It All Up

It is clear that AI has already had a profound impact on education, whether it is the student’s use of AI to help them with assignments or the teacher’s use of AI to create lesson plans, grading, or education plans for students with disabilities. The issue presented here is that AI is still in its infancy, and without clear policy for every school across the world on how to use these tools, AI can easily create more problems than it solves. There are ethical, legal, and practical concerns that need to be addressed, and there is no easy answer. What is clear is that there needs to be widespread policy enacted for every school, since a majority of teachers are using AI to some degree. Policy is foundational to protecting students and teachers from the issues that arise from AI.

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Glossary

• 504 Plan:  A 504 plan is for a student that has a medical condition that impacts their ability to access the general education curriculum.

• GenAI/Generative AI: Is a type of artificial intelligence that can create new content. 

• IEP: Individualized  Educational Program

• LEA: Local Educational Agency

• PII: Personally Identifiable Information

• SEA: State Educational Agency

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References

1. AI Competency Framework for Teachers. (n.d.-b). https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391104

2. Artificial Intelligence (AI). Long Beach Unified School District. (n.d.). https://www.lbschools.net/departments/tisb/ai#docaccess-7cffeba67dea407ee425d62425ebabf2

3. Chegg, Inc. - Chegg Global Student Survey 2025: 80% of undergraduates worldwide have used genai to support their studies – but accuracy a top concern. (n.d.-c). https://investor.chegg.com/Press-Releases/press-release-details/2025/Chegg-Global-Student-Survey-2025-80-of-Undergraduates-Worldwide-Have-Used-GenAI-to-Support-their-Studies--But-Accuracy-a-Top-Concern/default.aspx

4. An eligible student guide to ferpa. https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/. (n.d.). https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/sites/default/files/resource_document/file/An%20Eligible%20Student%20Guide%20to%20FERPA_0.pdf

5. Federal Register. Federal Register . (n.d.). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-34/subtitle-B/chapter-III/part-300/subpart-F/subject-group-ECFR1d2a18271819883/section-300.622

6. Free AI tools for teachers and educators – brisk teaching. Free AI Tools for Teachers and Educators – Brisk Teaching. (n.d.). https://www.briskteaching.com/ai-tools-for-teachers

7. Generative AI and Assessment | Blended Learning Service. (n.d.-d). https://blendedlearning.cam.ac.uk/artificial-intelligence-and-education/generative-ai-and-assessment

8. Hand in Hand: Schools’ Embrace of AI Connected to Increased Risks to Students. cdt.org. (2025, October). https://cdt.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/FINAL_CDT-Polling-2025-Supporting-Slides.pdf

9. Jeremy Baum, J. V., Kerry, C. F., West, D. M., Rep. Kevin Kiley, Rep. M. T., Bernstein, G., & Winthrop, R. (2025, October 28). Should schools ban or integrate generative AI in the classroom?. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/should-schools-ban-or-integrate-generative-ai-in-the-classroom/

10. Legal Information Institute. (n.d.). 34 CFR § 300.610 - confidentiality. Legal Information Institute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/34/300.610

11. More than half of public school leaders say cell phones hurt academic performance. IES. (2024, December 5). https://ies.ed.gov/learn/press-release/more-half-public-school-leaders-say-cell-phones-hurt-academic-performance

12. A toolkit for safe, ethical, and Equitable AI integration - eric. (n.d.-a). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED661924.pdf

13. UNESCO survey: Two-thirds of higher education institutions have or are. (2025, September 2). https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-survey-two-thirds-higher-education-institutions-have-or-are-developing-guidance-ai-use