On this page
Without written AI rules, students guess what is allowed, each teacher improvises, and parents hear different answers from different staff. A UNESCO survey of over 450 schools and universities, run in May 2023, found that only 7% of schools had institutional policies or formal guidance on generative AI. Close to 40% of the institutions that had guidance communicated it orally rather than in writing.
In India, AI is now in the timetable itself. CBSE Circular Acad-15/2026, dated 1 April 2026, introduces a Computational Thinking and AI curriculum for Classes III to VIII from the 2026–27 session, and says it promotes "ethical use of technology". A short written policy turns that phrase into everyday rules.
What should a school AI policy cover?
A useful policy answers five questions that students, teachers and parents actually ask:
Allowed uses: what may students use AI for, from what age, and with which tools?
Disclosure: how does a student show what the AI did?
Assessment: which tasks are AI-free, and how is learning checked?
Privacy: what student data may go into an AI tool, and who approves the tool?
Staff use: what may teachers use AI for, and what must stay with a person?
UNESCO's Guidance for generative AI in education and research, published on 7 September 2023, sets an age limit of 13 for the use of AI tools in the classroom, according to UNESCO's announcement. It also calls for data protection and privacy standards and for teacher training, which match sections 1, 4 and 5 above.
How should students disclose AI use?
Disclosure works when it is short and routine. Ask for a three-line note at the end of any assessed work: the tool used, what it was asked, and what the student changed or rejected.
The habit worth teaching alongside the rule is using AI to understand your mistakes rather than collect answers.
How can teachers check AI use in assessment?
Don't build the policy around detection software. Design tasks where the thinking is visible: drafts, short viva questions, writing done in class, and working shown step by step. We have written separately about how teachers can check AI use without AI detectors. When a teacher suspects undisclosed use, the first step should be a conversation in which the student explains their work, not a penalty.
What does Indian privacy law mean for AI in schools?
India notified the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 on 14 November 2025, with an eighteen-month period for phased compliance, according to the Press Information Bureau backgrounder. The same document says verifiable consent from a parent or guardian is required when a child's personal data is involved, unless the processing relates to essential services such as healthcare, education or real-time safety.
In practice: keep a list of approved tools, and keep names, roll numbers, marks, photos and health details out of public chatbots. Ask your legal adviser how the rules apply to each tool you approve. For students, our guide on what personal information not to share with an AI chatbot makes a good handout.
What may teachers use AI for?
UNESCO's AI competency framework for teachers, published in August 2024, sets out 15 competencies across five dimensions, including ethics of AI and AI pedagogy. In a school policy, teachers may use approved tools to draft lesson plans, question variants, rubrics and simpler versions of a reading. Final marks, report-card remarks about a named child and any decision about a student stay with a person. Teachers disclose their own AI use too, so students see the same rule applied to adults.
A template your school can adapt
Copy this, fill in the brackets, and keep it to one page:
Purpose: AI at [school name] supports learning; it does not replace a student's own thinking.
Who and what: Students in Class [__] and above may use the tools listed in Annex A. Younger students use AI only with a teacher present.
Task labels: Every task is marked red, amber or green. Undisclosed AI use in red or amber work is treated as an academic honesty issue.
Disclosure: Assessed work carries a note giving the tool, the prompt and what was changed.
Checking learning: Teachers may ask any student to explain or redo part of a task in person.
Privacy: No personal data about students or staff goes into tools outside Annex A. The [designated officer] approves new tools.
Staff use: Staff may use approved tools for planning and resources. Marks and decisions about students are made by staff.
Review: The policy is reviewed every [term or year] with student and parent input.
Amber tasks are where tools that explain rather than answer fit best. Fermi's AI tutor works out what a student already knows, builds a plan for the session and checks understanding as it goes. The Fermi Problem Library has a step-by-step solver that explains the reasoning rather than printing an answer.
Start with the one-page version this term, and revise it once you see how students use it.
