Making AI Guidance Actionable for Teachers, Students, and Families

Overview

Creating a meaningful and safe approach to AI in schools requires more than just publishing district policy and guidance documents—it demands a deep understanding of the school community’s needs and a thoughtful plan to help students, families, and educators turn guidance into practice. By starting with stakeholder input and pairing vision with tailored supports, schools can build AI approaches that are not only coherent but also actionable and relevant.

At the heart of this strategy is the belief that AI integration should align with existing goals for teaching and learning. Rather than mandating or banning tools outright, leaders can establish shared principles, communicate expectations clearly, and equip each stakeholder group with tools and routines that help them engage AI responsibly.

Example from the School Teams AI Collaborative

United Charter High School Humanities II, part of the United Charter Schools network in New York City, supported their charter network in developing a comprehensive approach to AI guidance by grounding their work in stakeholder voice and implementation support. Their process followed the following key steps:

Starting with Staff Input: School leaders launched an internal AI usage survey to better understand how teachers were already using AI and what opportunities they saw for its use in instruction. The survey provided a baseline understanding of current practices and how teachers were reimagining instruction to meet the moment, both of which provided critical insights for developing policy and planning for support.
Building a Coherent Policy Framework: Informed by staff feedback and broader field guidance, the school developed a comprehensive AI policy that established network-wide shared values, clarified expectations for students and staff, and outlined responsible use practices. The policy included clear guidance on transparency, data privacy, academic integrity, and the roles of AI, educators, and students in teaching and learning.
Creating Stakeholder-Specific Guidance: Recognizing that policy alone wouldn’t drive effective use, the school created tailored guidance supports for each stakeholder group:
- Students received a one-page guide outlining key expectations and acceptable uses of AI in learning.
- Teachers were provided with professional learning playbooks that connected AI use to the charter network’s broad instructional goals and academic strategy, and highlighted both practical and aspirational practices teachers reported in survey responses.
- Families received a guidance document to help them understand the school’s approach and how AI use would be monitored and supported.
Planning for Continuous Improvement: The survey school leaders used as part of their diagnostic process was also designed to be reissued iteratively to understand how the network’s teachers’ use evolves over time. This intentional design enables cycles of learning and adjustment that ensure policy and related supports can adapt as classroom realities do.

By pairing strong policy with practical implementation supports for all stakeholders, United Charter High School Humanities II translated its AI vision into clear, actionable guidance for the entire school community.

Applying This Strategy in Your Context

Schools looking to move beyond surface-level AI policy toward deeper, actionable guidance can follow a similar approach to ensure policies are grounded in real-world needs and supported by clear, practical tools. Leaders can take the following steps:

Engage Stakeholders Early: Begin by listening. Survey or interview teachers, students, and families to understand how AI is currently used and where additional support is needed. Adapt tools like TLA’s EdTech Systems Audit, specific teacher-, student-, and family-facing edtech surveys, or the survey from United Charter HIgh Schools to meet your needs. Use this data to guide priorities and policy design.
Clarify the Why, What, and How: Draft an AI policy that begins with your vision for AI in learning, defines expectations for responsible use, and outlines what’s permissible and what isn’t. Keep it short, focused, and values-driven. For example, United Charter High School’s policy clearly states that AI can be used to support planning and feedback but not to complete final student assignments, grounding these expectations in core values like academic integrity and student data privacy.
Create Role-Specific Guidance Supports: Develop tailored resources to help each group understand and act on the policy. For teachers, this might include planning guides or PD materials; for students, one-pagers or stoplights with do’s and don’ts; for families, communications that explain what to expect.
Support Instructional Practice Change: Help educators apply your AI policy through clear, classroom-relevant strategies. Provide models for how AI can support learning goals, like using it to co-plan lessons, generate feedback, or scaffold tasks. Use PD, PLCs, and peer observation to surface best practices and develop a shared understanding of high-quality, responsible AI use in instruction.
Build Feedback Loops for Continuous Improvement: Treat your AI policy as a living document. Create opportunities to revisit goals and adjust based on real implementation. This might include resurveying teachers and students, integrating AI tool use into instructional rounds or observation protocols, and using PLCs to reflect on emerging needs or challenges. Make iteration a regular, expected part of the work.

Schools can make AI guidance meaningful by rooting it in community voice, connecting it to daily practice, and supporting each stakeholder group in taking action. With a clear policy and thoughtful implementation plan, leaders can empower their communities to use AI in ways that are safe, aligned, and transformative.

This AI-enabled strategy was developed by a member of the School Teams AI Collaborative—a partnership between Leading Educators and The Learning Accelerator (TLA). The Collaborative was developed to bring together innovative educators from schools across the country to share ideas and discover effective ways to use AI in the classroom.

Featured Artifact

United Charter High School for the Humanities II Staff AI Survey Report

This report summarizes findings from a staff-wide survey on how educators within the charter network... Learn More