The Sarasota County School Board supports the use of technology to improve teaching and learning, and to support innovations throughout the educational system. This includes the use of Alternative Intelligence (AI) platforms. The Sarasota County School Board has created this policy to emphasize the role of AI as a tool to support learning, while ensuring the platforms aren’t used as a replacement for student or employee work.

Since AI systems could lead to bias in how patterns are detected and unfairness in how decisions are automated, it is essential for the District to develop this policy in how AI is used in education. This policy outlines the acceptable use of AI tools and applications within the Sarasota County School District to ensure their safe, ethical, and responsible use.

A. Teachers and staff need to be aware and understand:

 1.    AI is not a substitute for human creativity, judgement, and creation.

2.    Supervisors must be notified when AI is being used to complete a task.

3.    AI use requires authorization to protect against violation of District Policy

4.    Any use of AI platforms shall include a review of the generated result for accuracy, appropriateness, or potential bias (depending on the nature of the work)

5.    Employees shall not integrate AI tools with other District software.

6.    Employees shall not allow AI to learn passwords, confidential, proprietary or sensitive district data.

7.    Employees shall not share or upload personally identifiable employee or student records, names, addresses, etc.,

8.    Employees shall not use AI tools to record meetings, classroom instruction/activities, or training sessions, unless approved by their school principal or District Level Administrator and other parties involved are aware they are being recorded.

9.    Employees shall not upload recordings of meetings, classroom instruction/activities, or training sessions to AI platforms, unless approved by their school principal or District Level Administrator.

10. Employees shall not use AI for employment decisions about applicants or employees.

11. Employees shall not use AI tools specifically prohibited or (if applicable) not on approved lists.

B. Students Responsible Use:

 1.    AI is not a substitute for human creativity, judgement, and creation. Students may not use AI when their teacher or school has expressly forbidden its use.

2.    Students shall not use Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms to avoid doing their own work. AI platforms should only be used as a supplement when authorized by a teacher. Should AI be used, the student must acknowledge and cite the use of AI, attributing text, images, multimedia, etc. to the AI source and criteria used to show how AI contributed to result of the assignment. A violation of this rule is considered a violation of District Policy 5.55 Academic Honesty.

3.    AI programs can have implicit bias, and present incorrect information. Students using AI acknowledge that it is not always factually accurate, nor seen as a credible source, and should be able to provide evidence to support its claims.

4.    Students who choose to use an AI platform for purposes authorized within this policy need to be aware that they are sharing data with a third-party platform.

5.    AP, IB and Dual Enrollment college and university classes may have additional restrictions and limitations regarding the use of AI.

6.    Student access to certain websites using AI may be granted, however privacy guidelines and age restrictions must be considered prior to allowing the usage.

7.    Any use of AI should be in compliance with Policy 3.43 Internet Safety.

 
C. Any misuse of AI tools and applications, such as hacking or altering data, is strictly prohibited.

 
D. In selecting an AI platform for use, the platform must:

 1.    Use large language models based on GPT-4, its equivalent, or a successor, and is on a closed system;

2.    Provide professional learning to teachers;

3.    Provide one-on-one tutoring aligned to the Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T) Standards for reading and math;

4.    Provide standards-aligned lesson plans and provides insights on student progress; and

5.    Provide District and school-level reporting and parental access to AI interactions

 
E. Staff or students using AI software with a personal device and/or personal credentials should be aware that the platforms they are uploading information to is collecting various forms of data and their privacy may not be protected.

F. This policy shall be reviewed continuously to ensure the District remains aligned with emerging and changing AI capabilities, Federal or State Law, Florida Department of Education Rule, and industry best practices.