Write Your Classroom AI Policy

Why the rules feel like a mess

The complaint teachers make most often after the generic lesson plans one is this: every teacher or department has a different rule for acceptable AI use. Students walk from a lesson where using AI to check their spelling is normal into one where it is treated as cheating, and nobody has ever written either rule down.

That inconsistency is not the students' fault and it is not really yours either. It is what happens when a technology arrives faster than the paperwork. But it does have a fix that fits on one page, and you can write it this week without waiting for anyone.

Your school may already have a policy. If it does, yours sits underneath it and never contradicts it. What a school policy almost never covers is the thing students actually need: in this subject, in this room, for this task, what may I do.

Build it outside this site

There are no accounts here and nothing you type is stored, so write your policy wherever you actually keep things: a document, the front of your planner, a poster on the wall. A policy that lives in a course is not a policy.

Keep it to one page. Read it aloud to yourself. If any sentence needs explaining, it is not finished.

The four sections

Allowed. Be generous and specific, and put this first. If the only thing students see is a list of prohibitions, they conclude that all use is risky, which does not stop them using it. It stops them telling you. Things that are usually fine: asking for an explanation of something they did not understand, being quizzed on a topic, generating extra practice questions, checking spelling and grammar on work they wrote, translating a word.

Needs disclosure. This is the category that makes the policy work. Uses that are fine but that you want to know about: brainstorming ideas before planning, having it suggest improvements to a draft they wrote, using it to find sources they then read and checked themselves. All they have to do is write one line saying what they used and what they changed. Treat it exactly like a bibliography.

Not allowed. Name tasks, not principles. Handing in text they did not write. Submitting anything they cannot explain. Using it during an assessment where you have said no. Using it on the specific skill the task exists to build, which is worth spelling out per subject.

What happens if you cross the line. Say it in advance and keep it proportionate. For most cases: a conversation, and the work is redone. Escalation follows the school policy, not your own invention. Students who know the consequence in advance behave differently from students guessing at it, and it removes any suggestion that you decided the punishment after you decided who was guilty.

AI IN [SUBJECT], [YEAR GROUP]
Teacher: [name]. Last updated: [date].
This sits under the school policy. If they disagree, the school wins.

ALLOWED, NO NEED TO TELL ME

Asking it to explain something you did not understand
Asking it to quiz you on a topic
Asking for extra practice questions
Checking spelling and grammar on writing you did yourself
[add your own]

ALLOWED, BUT TELL ME
Write one line at the end: what you used, and what you changed.

Brainstorming ideas before you plan
Asking it to suggest improvements to a draft you wrote
Using it to find sources, which you then read yourself
[add your own]

NOT ALLOWED

Handing in writing you did not write
Handing in anything you cannot explain to me out loud
Using it in any assessment where I have said no devices
Using it to do [the specific skill this subject is building]
[add your own]


IF YOU CROSS THE LINE
First: we talk about it, and you redo the work properly.
Beyond that, I follow the school policy. There are no secret rules
and nothing here will be a surprise.


THE REASON
[One or two sentences in your own voice about why this matters
for your subject. Not a threat. The point is that you learn to
do the thing, and a tool doing it for you means you never will.]

Test it before it goes out

Two checks, both quick. Show it to a student and ask them to tell you what they may do tomorrow. If they hesitate, a section is too abstract. Then show it to a colleague in another subject and ask whether their version would contradict yours. Where it would, that is the conversation to take to your department, because that contradiction is exactly what students are complaining about.

Here is my draft classroom AI policy. Do not rewrite it.
Tell me:

Any sentence a 13 year old would not understand
Any rule that sounds clear but that two students could
reasonably apply differently
Any common situation my policy does not cover
Anywhere I have described a principle instead of naming a task
Anything that reads as a threat rather than an explanation
Be blunt. Do not praise it.
Draft:
[paste it]

Turn my classroom AI policy into a short note for parents.
Requirements: under 200 words. Plain English, no education jargon.
Explain what we allow and why, what we ask students to declare,
and what we would do if there were a concern.
Include one sentence suggesting a useful question they could ask
their child about homework.
Do not make it sound alarmed and do not imply students are suspects.
Policy:
[paste it]