Seminole County Public Schools students will be allowed to access AI

Artificial intelligence is coming into the classroom at Seminole County Public Schools. 

The plan, as detailed to the school board at a Jan. 20 meeting,  allows students and teachers to have access to a suite of AI tools starting this spring.

Seminole County Public Schools Chair Robin Dehlinger said the plan is to have a full rollout in fall for the next school year. 

“Our formal rollout will be in the fall. But it will still be evolving,” Dehlinger said. “It will be available next (school) year to everyone.”

School board member Abby Sanchez said she’s nervous and “still real skeptical about it.”

“How can we make sure when we’re implementing it that we have tracking that they can only utilize certain ones? How do we know they’re not using other sites?” Sanchez asked. “How do we know they’re using their own brains and not AI?” 

“Thats the question of the century right now,” said Mike Rice, the assistant superintendent of high schools. 

SCPS is using three AI programs with teachers and students: Microsoft’s Copilot Chat, Google’s Gemini Chat and Google’s NotebookLM. 

“All the models that are chosen are fine-tuned for student safety. They’re not just the publicly available models,” said Ken Richmond, SCPS’ Administrative Security Officer. “And all of them have the ability to control access based on user accounts, so we can make sure (there is) age-appropriate access to tools.” Queries and other data typed by students do not get uploaded to teach the AI, and the NotebookLM only uses sources that are specifically uploaded to it. It also cites its sources in the responses. Additionally, the chats will be logged and stored for safety.

School Board Member Autumn Garick asked if the AI will be available on devices students can take home. Staff said students won’t be allowed to access other AI platforms, like ChatGPT, on district devices or on school system Internet. If students are using personal device with other AI programs, the district’s firewall should block it’s use while on school sites. 

School Board Member Kelley Davis asked if teachers are receiving training in how to better judge what knowledge students are retaining in this AI era. 

“Are you teaching the teachers how to assess verbally, where [students] have to describe what they wrote in their paper, or have to present something different,” Davis asked, “so we can make sure the critical thinking is happening?” 

Alyssa Carr, SCPS English Language Arts curriculum specialist, said Gemini Chat will not write a paper for a student. If a student prompts that, it will instead ask them if they need help brainstorming. 

“It’s kinda like a bike with training wheels,” Carr said. “Yes, there’s (other) AI. You can just go talk to Gemini and it will write your paper. But we’ve made this custom bot where it won’t. It has the training wheels on. It will not write the paper for them. And that way we can kinda show them this is ethically and a safe way to get support in your writing without it doing it for you. And that way later on, when you’re using other tools, you’ve thought about the ethical and right way to utilize this.”

The school board also approved an updated district policy on the use of AI; staff can’t use AI to generate work, and students can’t use AI to complete work “unless explicitly permitted.”

“No confidential, proprietary, or sensitive data may be input into AI systems unless the system has been reviewed and approved by the District’s Information Services Department,” the policy reads. 

The board has also previously created a policy that AI-generated images can violate the code of student conduct.

Dehlinger said teachers will have to adapt to AI by both doing more writing in the classroom and verbally making sure kids know the material. 

“That’s nothing new,” Dehlinger said. “Kids have been doing that kind of thing – it’s called cheating – forever.”

You can watch the AI discussion at the school board meeting here. You can read about Hagerty High School and Crooms Academy’s AI program of emphasis here.

Want to contact your elected leaders and weigh in on this topic? Find the Seminole County Public Schools contact information here. Is your school or student currently using AI? Are you worried about the impact AI will have on your children? Contact Oviedo Community News here. 

In addition, Seminole County Public Schools also: 

• Received a $200,000 check from Duda family foundation to clear the lunch debt of 5,000 students. DUDA has started a fundraising page to incentivize others to donate. “Our family firmly believes in sharing our blessings, and eliminating this lunch debt allows us to put those values into action and support Seminole County families in a tangible way,” said Tracy Duda Chapman, chief legal and administrative officer at DUDA. “No child should carry the weight of a lunch debt, and we’re honored to help ensure students have access to the nutritious foods they need to optimize learning.”
• Celebrated the school district’s graduation rates increasing from 91.8 percent to 94.4 percent.
• Updated its “Name, Image and Likeness” policy to match recent state laws, allowing high school students and athletes to profit off their branding, but students could not use district logos or uniforms. They would also have to follow the Florida High School Athletic Association guidelines.
• Updated policy to clarify that elementary and middle school students cannot use cellphones and wireless communication devices during the school day. Elementary and middle school students are allowed to use the devices after school and at club activities with permission. High school students are allowed to access devices on buses, between classes and at lunch, as long as it doesn’t “create a distraction, disruption, or otherwise interfere with the educational environment.”
• Created a stricter policy for excusing student absences. The policy now says open-ended illness notes won’t be accepted, and any documentation provided more than one week after the student returns to school won’t be accepted unless the school administration allows it. Parents can also now attend truancy meetings virtually. SCPS, like many school districts, is seeing higher rates of chronic absenteeism.  

Abe Aboraya is a Report for America corps member.