What you will learn
- Apply the bright-line rule: no student personal data goes into a public AI tool.
- Anonymise sensitive work or route it to an approved tool with a data agreement.
- Use the thirty-second decision test on any task.
This is the pillar that carries legal and safeguarding weight, and the easiest to get badly wrong by accident. The rule is short and absolute.
The bright line
No student's personal data goes into a public AI tool. Not a name attached to a grade, not a photo, not a description of a child's home circumstances written into a report. Public chatbots may retain and learn from what is typed into them, so treat every input as if it could resurface. If staff want AI help with sensitive work, they anonymise first, or use a school-approved tool that has a proper data-processing agreement behind it.
Choosing tools you can defend
When you move beyond public tools, ask the boring questions that matter. Where is the data stored? Is it used to train the vendor's models? Can you delete it? Is there an agreement that names your school as the data controller? A tool without clear answers is not ready for student data, regardless of how good the demo looked.
What the frameworks say
Data privacy is the single most common theme across US state guidance, according to The 74's reporting. The Australian Framework devotes a full principle to Privacy, Security and Safety, and TeachAI's toolkit provides language for handling student data responsibly.
- A Step-by-Step Guide to AI in Schools (The 74)
- Australian Framework for Generative AI in Schools (Australian Government, Department of Education (2023))
- TeachAI: AI Guidance for Schools Toolkit (TeachAI (Code.org, ETS, ISTE, Khan Academy, World Economic Forum))
Sources for this module
- A Step-by-Step Guide to AI in Schools, The 74. https://www.the74million.org
- Australian Framework for Generative AI in Schools, Australian Government, Department of Education (2023). https://www.education.gov.au/schooling/resources/australian-framework-generative-artificial-intelligence-ai-schools
- TeachAI: AI Guidance for Schools Toolkit, TeachAI (Code.org, ETS, ISTE, Khan Academy, World Economic Forum). https://www.teachai.org