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Professional Growth

Using Technology and AI Responsibly to Strengthen Your Professional Practice

Teach This Way! editorial · Last updated · 10 min read

Use AI and classroom technology to save time without risking student privacy: verification habits, FERPA and COPPA basics, and where judgment matters.

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Artificial intelligence tools can draft a parent newsletter in seconds, suggest discussion questions for a novel, or rewrite a reading passage at a different level. Used well, they can give educators back time for the parts of the job that need a human: relationships, judgment and responsive teaching. Used carelessly, they can produce confident errors, expose student information, or quietly replace the professional thinking that makes teaching effective.

This article is for K–12 teachers, special educators, counselors, related service providers and school leaders. It covers practical uses, how to verify what AI produces, the basics of student privacy (FERPA, COPPA and district policies), and the limits of these tools. It is not legal advice. Your district's policies and approved tool lists come first.

Where Educators Are Right Now

AI use among educators is growing but uneven. A February 2025 RAND report, Uneven Adoption of Artificial Intelligence Tools Among U.S. Teachers and Principals in the 2023–2024 School Year (Kaufman and colleagues), found that 25 percent of surveyed English, math and science teachers used AI tools for instructional planning or teaching that year, and nearly 60 percent of principals used AI tools for their work. Only 18 percent of principals reported that their schools or districts provided guidance on AI use, and principals in the highest-poverty schools were about half as likely as those in the lowest-poverty schools to report such guidance. In other words, many educators are figuring this out without clear rules, which makes personal habits and professional judgment especially important.

Federal guidance has emphasized human oversight. The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology, in its May 2023 report Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations, made "Emphasize Humans in the Loop" its first recommendation, rejecting the idea of AI replacing teachers and calling for educators to be involved whenever AI is used to notice patterns or automate educational processes. In July 2025, the Department issued a Dear Colleague Letter on using federal grant funds for AI, which set out principles for responsible use, including attention to user privacy and the importance of engaging parents and other stakeholders in decisions about adopting new technologies.

Key Insights

  • AI is a drafting partner, not an authority. Generative AI predicts plausible text. It can be fluent and wrong at the same time, including inventing facts, quotations, sources or standards codes.
  • The time savings are real only if checking is fast. If you spend longer fixing a draft than writing it, that task may not be a good fit.
  • Privacy risk usually comes from what you paste in. The simplest protection is to never enter identifiable student information into a tool your district has not approved.
  • Your expertise is the quality control. AI does not know your students, your community or what happened in class yesterday. You do.
  • Bias can show up in subtle ways. Examples, names, reading passages and feedback suggestions can reflect stereotypes. Review with that in mind.

Practical Uses That Tend to Work Well

Many experienced teachers find AI most useful for tasks where they can quickly judge quality:

  • First drafts of routine communication: newsletters, reminders and event announcements (with no student details), which you then edit for tone and accuracy.
  • Generating options: ten possible discussion questions, five hooks for a lesson, or several examples at different difficulty levels, from which you choose the best.
  • Adapting text: rewriting a passage at a different reading level or creating a simplified set of directions. Check that meaning and key vocabulary survive.
  • Practice materials: extra practice problems or review questions, which you verify for accuracy before use.
  • Rubric and checklist drafts: a starting structure you refine to match your actual expectations.
  • Planning support: brainstorming how to sequence a unit or anticipating student misconceptions.

Tasks that usually need more caution: grading or writing feedback on student work, anything involving IEP or 504 content, behavior or discipline records, counseling notes, and decisions about individual students. Those involve sensitive information and professional judgment that should not be delegated.

How to Verify What AI Produces

Build a quick verification habit, especially for anything students or families will see.

  1. Check every fact. Dates, definitions, scientific claims, historical details and math answers. Solve math problems yourself.
  2. Check every source and quotation. If AI provides a citation, look it up. AI tools can produce references that look real but do not exist.
  3. Check standards alignment against the official source. Do not trust a standard code or description generated by AI. Compare it with your state's published standards. The Standards section can help you find what applies.
  4. Read for bias and fit. Are names, scenarios and examples representative? Would any student or family feel stereotyped or excluded?
  5. Read for your students. Is the reading level right? Is the vocabulary appropriate? Does it match what you actually taught?
  6. Read it aloud. Awkward phrasing and generic filler become obvious when spoken.

Student Privacy: The Basics Every Educator Should Know

FERPA

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that gives parents (and students once they turn 18 or attend a postsecondary institution) certain rights over education records, including some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from those records. In practical terms: student names, grades, IEP details, behavior notes, assessment results and similar information should not be pasted into tools that have not been vetted and approved by your district. The Department of Education's Privacy Technical Assistance Center publishes guidance for schools on protecting student privacy when using online educational services.

COPPA

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, applies to commercial websites and online services that collect personal information from children under 13. According to the FTC's COPPA FAQs, schools may in some cases consent on behalf of parents when a service is used for the school's educational purposes, but that authority is limited to the educational context and does not cover the company's own commercial uses of the data. This is why a teacher signing a class up for a free app on their own can create problems: decisions about consent are usually made at the school or district level.

District and state policies

Many districts maintain lists of approved tools, have data privacy agreements with vendors, and set rules about AI use by staff and students. Some states have their own student privacy laws. Before using a new tool with students or student data, ask your technology department or administrator. If your district has no guidance yet, ask for it, and in the meantime follow the most cautious approach.

A simple privacy rule of thumb

  • Remove names and identifying details before using AI for any task involving students. "A fourth grader who reads two grade levels below" is enough for most purposes.
  • Never enter IEP, 504, health, discipline, counseling or family information into unapproved tools.
  • Check whether a tool requires student accounts, and if so, whether the district has approved it.
  • Assume anything you type into a consumer tool may be stored, unless your district's agreement says otherwise.

How to Put This Into Practice

  1. Learn your district's rules. Find the approved tool list and any AI guidance. Note what is allowed for staff and for students.
  2. Choose one low-risk task. A weekly newsletter or a set of discussion questions is a good start.
  3. Write a clear prompt. Include grade level, purpose, length, tone and any constraints. Ask for several options.
  4. Verify and edit. Use the checklist above. Make it sound like you.
  5. Track the real time saved. For two weeks, note how long the task took with and without AI. Keep what saves time. Drop what doesn't.
  6. Be transparent. Follow your district's guidance on disclosure. Many educators tell students and families when AI helped draft materials, and they model the same honesty they expect from students.
  7. Talk with students about AI. Teach them to question outputs, check sources and use tools within your class rules.

For more ways to protect your time, see Time-Saving Tips for Busy Educators.

A Realistic Example

This is a composite scenario, not a real teacher or school.

A seventh-grade social studies teacher wants leveled readings on the causes of the American Revolution for a class with a wide range of reading levels. She uses a district-approved AI tool to rewrite a textbook passage at three levels. The drafts are readable, but when she checks them, she finds one version has simplified the Stamp Act into something historically inaccurate, and another includes a "quotation" from a founder that she cannot find in any source. She corrects the first and deletes the quotation.

Later, a colleague suggests pasting in student writing samples with names to get feedback suggestions. She checks her district's guidance, which prohibits entering student work with identifying information into AI tools. Instead, she uses AI to draft a general rubric and comment bank, which she edits, and then writes individual feedback herself. Over two weeks, she estimates the leveled readings saved her about an hour, after checking time. The comment bank helps a little. She keeps both, with her verification step built in.

What to Do When It Doesn't Work

  • The output is generic or bland. Add specifics to your prompt: your students' interests, your unit goals, examples of what you want. Or write it yourself. Not every task benefits from AI.
  • You found errors after sharing something. Correct it openly and quickly. Then add that type of check to your routine.
  • Students are using AI to avoid thinking. Revisit assignment design and class expectations, and follow school policies. Process-based work (drafts, conferences, in-class writing, oral explanation) makes thinking visible.
  • You're unsure whether a tool is approved. Don't use it with student data until you know. Ask your technology team.
  • You feel pressure to use AI, or not to. Professional judgment applies both ways. Use it where it genuinely helps your students and your practice, and skip it where it doesn't.

Adaptations for Different Roles

  • Elementary teachers: Most students are under 13, so COPPA and district consent processes matter for any student-facing tool. Teacher-only uses (planning, drafting) are lower risk.
  • Secondary teachers: Students may already use AI. Clear, consistent class policies and assignments that make students' thinking process visible are more useful than trying to catch AI use after the fact.
  • Special educators: AI can help draft visual supports or simplify directions, but IEP goals, present levels and progress reports require your professional judgment and protected data handling. Never paste IEP content into unapproved tools.
  • Counselors and school psychologists: Avoid entering any counseling or assessment information. AI can help with general lesson materials or family resources, which you review carefully.
  • SLPs, OTs and other related services: AI can generate practice word lists, scenarios or home program ideas without student details. Clinical decisions and documentation remain yours.
  • School leaders: Provide clear guidance, an approved tool list and professional learning. The RAND findings suggest many schools still lack guidance, and the gap is larger in high-poverty schools.

Try This Tomorrow

  • Find your district's approved technology list and any AI guidance, and read it.
  • Use an approved tool to draft one routine communication, then verify and edit it, and note how long it took.
  • Write a sticky note for your desk: "No names, no IEPs, no grades in unapproved tools."

Quick Takeaways

  • AI can save time on drafting and generating options, but every output needs a human check.
  • Never enter identifiable student information into tools your district has not approved.
  • FERPA protects education records; COPPA limits data collection from children under 13; district and state policies add more rules.
  • Federal guidance emphasizes keeping educators in the loop and engaging families in technology decisions.
  • Your knowledge of students and your professional judgment are what make any tool useful.

Reflection Questions

  1. Which of your weekly tasks could AI help with, and which require your judgment?
  2. Do you know your district's rules for AI and student data? If not, who can you ask?
  3. How will you model honest and careful AI use for your students?
  4. What would you need to see before trusting a new tool with student-facing work?

If you are using technology to help analyze student performance, pair it with the approach in Using Classroom Data to Improve Instruction Without Becoming Overwhelmed.

Sources & Further Reading

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