Key points:
Given AI’s evolving and increased presence in classrooms, the U.S. Department of Education has released a guide intended to help educators and education leaders integrate AI into education ethically and equitably.
Empowering Education Leaders: A Toolkit for Safe, Ethical, and Equitable AI Integration builds on the department’s prior report, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations, and is designed to help educational leaders make critical decisions about incorporating AI applications into student learning and the instructional core.
This latest report document links overarching ideas about AI to the establishment of school and district use policies to guide its effective implementation and offers guidance for the effective use and integration of AI in teaching and learning. The toolkit also promotes transparency and awareness in the use of AI in schools, and emphasizes the importance of giving students, teachers, and parents opportunities to opt out of AI-enabled applications in school.
The guide features 10 modules arranged in three categories:
1. Mitigating Risk: Safeguarding Student Privacy, Security, and Non-Discrimination (Modules 1-3). Awareness of applicable federal laws, rules, and regulations is an essential first step when planning for the use of AI in schools and classrooms. Educational leaders should know how existing federal policies apply to the use of AI in their specific situations. This section invites leaders to learn about privacy and data security requirements; how civil rights, accessibility, and digital equity relate to AI; and a close consideration of the opportunities and risks associated with the use of AI. This section is relevant for an educational leader who wants to understand how proactively addressing student safety, privacy, and security can help shape their plans to use AI
2. Building a Strategy for AI Integration in the Instructional Core (Modules 4-7). New forms of AI have already permeated educational settings widely, and exploring AI firsthand is necessary to understanding it. Educators in our listening sessions strongly recommended that districts use the knowledge they have gained from past advances in edtech to build a clear and coherent strategy tied to the instructional core as a first step in planning for the use of AI, and then revising that strategy as they learn more about AI. That strategy should be informed by multiple sources of evidence on the use of AI. Leaders identified three additional steps for further informing their strategy for the effective use of AI-enabled tools in a manner that suits the needs of their students: (1) listen to and inform their communities, (2) establish priorities and pace for their community, and (3) guide and support implementation of a community’s strategy via task force. This section provides resources to support educational leaders in considering the evidence supporting AI-enabled tools, and guiding leaders through each of these three essential steps. This path makes sense for an educational leader engaged in or beginning the strategic planning process around the use of AI.
3. Maximizing Opportunity: Guiding the Effective Use and Evaluation of AI (Modules 8- 10). Although exploration and building coherent strategy are important early steps, the toolkit urges educational leaders to be active in guiding the effective use of AI to enhance teaching and student learning, whether such tools are used for educator productivity or instruction. Educational leaders stressed three initial steps for shaping AI use: (1) developing AI literacy for educators, (2) revising responsible use policies, and (3) building a system-wide plan. This section is appropriate for an educational leader who has a clear strategy in place for the use of AI, and who is ready to focus on guiding, shaping, and continually evaluating the use of AI in their community.
“The Department of Education’s AI guidance provides timely direction for schools considering how best to integrate AI. By focusing on privacy, equity, and bias mitigation, this document offers a grounded framework that addresses educators’ and administrators’ priorities for using AI responsibly and effectively to serve all students,” said Sari Factor, Imagine Learning’s chief strategy officer.
“At the heart of this guidance is an understanding that AI in education is not a replacement for the human element but an enhancement to it. AI’s role should be to empower teachers, support differentiated instruction and facilitate stronger engagement with students and families,” Factor added. “For AI to have meaningful impact, integrating it with high-quality, standards-aligned curricula is essential. By ensuring that AI tools are deeply tied to learning objectives, schools can design implementations that are thoughtful, ethical, and centered on genuine educational value, paving the way for AI to make meaningful contributions to learning environments.”
