Artificial intelligence (AI) is unavoidable these days. AI-generated overviews appear in every Google search, an AI companion shows up in Zoom meetings and AI-driven algorithms suggest our next Netflix binge.

The education field is no exception.

The Consortium for School Networking’s (CoSN) annual Driving K-12 Innovation Report has named generative AI a top “tech enabler” for the third year in a row. At ISTELive 25, the International Society for Technology in Education’s annual conference, Google announced that it’s releasing Gemini to students in the classroom. At district offices, many employees are already using AI – whether the technology is formally integrated into office protocol or not.

“Some districts have just banned it. I think that is unwise because it is so ubiquitous,” says Vickie Echols, author of AI for School Leaders. “If educators take the lead, we can make sure we reap the benefits. There is always a conversation around over-reliance on technology. I was a terrible speller in third grade. When spellcheck came out, it was a game-changer. Similarly, AI still requires human intelligence. We have to maintain that metacognition and critical thinking.”

For school districts, that means implementing AI with intention, accompanied by professional development, an understanding of best practices and ethical use. As a baseline, California’s Department of Education has released guidelines to support AI integration in classrooms. Here is a look at how some California districts are stepping into the future with AI.

Course List
AI Essentials: A Basic Understanding for All
Adopting an AI Mindset
AI: Balance the Risks and Opportunities
AI: Upskill and Reskill
AI: From Algorithms to Decisions

Appropriate Use

Joe Ayala, director of technology at Santa Rosa Unified School District, came back to work after vacation and found 1,700 unread emails in his inbox. Rather than spend the day painstakingly sorting, deleting and responding to emails, Ayala took a screenshot of his inbox and asked AI to help build a system to filter out junk, allowing the most critical ones to rise to the top. That alone dropped 1,000 emails.

Ayala confesses to being a nerd – otherwise known as an early adopter. He participated in CASBO’s AI Leadership Essentials micro-certificate program and presented on AI at the CASBO Annual Conference & California School Business Expo.

He says school leaders should reframe how they think about AI, considering it an assistant on the side. “Many of our jobs will shift to quality control over data entry. It lets us do more with less,” Ayala says.

AI can act as a virtual assistant to schedule, automate and assist with report generation; analyze student performance data; examine policy; identify stakeholders; review incoming bills; provide a chat that responds to routine queries; and evaluate your Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP).

District communication teams are mfinding AI helpful for generating ideas, considering different perspectives and refining tone.

Echols knows a teacher who likes to get straight to the point in her emails, but some parents felt she was too businesslike. The teacher started using AI to soften her tone and got a much better response from parents. One caveat: If using AI for research, double-check the facts (more on this later).

Establish a Culture

Ross Hartman, founder of Kiingo AI and lead presenter for CASBO’s AI Leadership Essentials micro-certificate program, says there are three big challenges with AI: “Knowing when to use it, knowing how to use it and remembering to use it.” All of this goes to the overall culture of a district, from the superintendent’s office to the business offices, all the way to classrooms.

In other words, districts can’t just house AI in the technology department. It should be infused throughout the district.

“You have to build a habit around using it,” says Hartman. “Not just individuals but the organization as a whole has to develop a behavior around it.”

The Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) is a couple of years into a districtwide integration effort.

LACOE began by identifying the stakeholders who would be impacted by AI use, and then established a task force comprising students, teachers, administrators and staff members from across the organization. The board approved a resolution that provided guidelines for AI use.

The district then launched an AI governance council to establish a strategic approach to integration, starting with the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and Council of Great City Schools (CGCS) K-12 Gen AI Maturity Tool. The tool is a great place to begin when assessing your district’s readiness to implement AI because it includes questions that determine whether AI aligns with overall institutional objectives.

The process helped LACOE lay out a vision and guiding principles – the start of a road map for integration. Elizabeth Graswich, LACOE’s executive director of public affairs, points out that AI is changing quickly, so the road map has to be flexible.

For that reason, professional development is crucial. As with many other tools for learning, AI is not just one-and done. It’s an ongoing process of learning. The district is working on a professional development pathway that will be required before employees are approved to use the AI tool.

Like LACOE, Santa Rosa Unified School District finds that regular training on AI is the best way to get everyone on the same page. The district meets once a month with district personnel for professional development focused on AI use. The sessions started with prompt engineering, but now there’s an app within the system that helps users write a more effective prompt. The sessions continue to evolve along with the technology.

All professional development sessions provide an opportunity to ensure AI use aligns with district guidelines and advances the district’s overall mission statement. For example, does the use reflect the district’s overall approach to digital citizenship? Does it promote equity and access?

Implicit bias is also something to be aware of when using AI. “The machine is trained by humans, so there will be bias,” says Echols. “We have to spot the blind spots and be aware of anything that is harmful. For example, don’t just throw resumes in there because the machine can form biases around names or where they went to college.”

If your district has green initiatives, it’s important to pay attention to how much energy the models use. Don’t use the biggest model if you’re using the machine as essentially a Google search.

Finally, employees must feel reassured that the district is not implementing AI as a prelude to eliminating their jobs. Ayala admits that he was so enthusiastic about the AI that he overlooked how the changes would make people feel.

“It will change the way we do things, and it’s coming no matter what we do,” he says. “It’s a big cultural shift, similar to when the internet came out. To counteract those negative feelings about job loss, we needed to slow down and go into deeper training to reassure them.”

Keep Humans in the Loop

Desert Sands Unified School District (DSUSD) has become a leader in AI implementation by prioritizing the human element. Each step in the integration process is tied to the district’s RISE framework (Respect, Integrity, Support and Empathy).

Much like LACOE, DSUSD’s AI task force included classroom teachers, counselors, principals, students and security agents. The task force began with an AI guidance document, available on its website in both English and Spanish. The document supports district policy and is simple to modify, providing a table of contents for ease of use. It’s also heavy on examples of AI uses, so that staff can begin envisioning a new way to do their work.

The district laid out a three-year implementation plan that is now in its third year. Phase one began with AI playgrounds where staff could try out various tools, ask questions and explore in a comfortable environment. This phase focused on one human using one AI assistant.

In phase two, humans became AI agent bosses. In this phase, the district organized two-week cohorts throughout the school year for those interested in expanding their use of AI. Principals and the AI task force were the first cohorts. The upcoming phase three will focus on AI literacy across the organization.

Staff is encouraged to think of AI as a team of people, ready to fill in where needed.

Tiffany Norton, chief of the innovation and information office on the educational services side, says even district electricians have jumped on board. They are now using AI for everything from automating routine tasks to enhancing customer service – even troubleshooting and diagnostics.

“We are at a point in our organization that we can empower our employees to use these tools and amplify the work they are doing,” says Norton. “When anyone starts to look at AI, it can be daunting, but you don’t need to do it perfectly. You just need to do it. It’s not a replacement for humans, it’s an amplifier.”

At this point in the process, everyone across the district is familiar with the golden rule of AI use: Humans are responsible for keeping everyone’s data secure.

Before any AI integration can begin, employees must understand how to keep data secure. This includes understanding what data can and cannot be entered into the system, how to turn off training in any system to prevent it from training on the districts’ information, and reviewing vendor use of AI, whether the system is open or closed.

AI does hallucinate, so staff must guard against overreliance and always assess the product for accuracy.

“The ethical way to use it is for problem-solving and brainstorming. Don’t off-load your thinking, but accelerate your thinking,” says Hartman. “Two heads are better than one. The other head just happens to be an AI chatbot.”

Leading with Vision

Jason Hill, deputy superintendent of business services for Redlands Unified School District, watched as businesses and companies leveraged AI to streamline their operations, thus simplifying their work. He noticed that in school systems, the AI focus was on students in classrooms, where the conversion often halted over fears around cheating.

“I watched the education community staff stall around fear, while the business community pushed forward with hope and vision,” say Hill, who also participated in CASBO’s AI Leadership Essentials micro-certification.

Redlands Unified initiated the implementation of RAISE (Responsible AI in Schools and Education) guidelines throughout the district, teaching district managers, staff and students how to use AI responsibly.

“We often throw AI to the IT department, but it’s not a tech thing, it’s an everybody thing,” says Hill. “We called our implementation RAISE to signify that AI use is accepted and welcome, and something we want to explore together.”

When it came time to decide which AI platform Redlands would select, there was a lot to contemplate. First, Hill considered the district’s goals for AI use. Of course, budget is always a factor.

In the end, the district carefully considered Microsoft and Google because they’re familiar with California laws governing AI. They also have such a large share of the education market that the companies would move with caution to avoid damaging that market share.

All Redlands USD staff members will soon have access to Gemini Premium. Pilot groups of students, starting with seniors, will begin next.

Redlands and many other districts have decided it’s worth doing the hard work to implement AI thoughtfully.

“We had to acknowledge that people would use it with or without us. The same goes for students. If we want to teach it responsibly, we have to get in front of it. We have to listen, teach and learn with them.”

Learn more about AI professional development courses at casbo.org/ai.

Jennifer Snelling is a freelance writer based in Eugene, Oregon