On June 10, CSBA’s AI Taskforce hosted its fourth and final webinar, “Navigating AI Policy, Privacy and Procurement with CITE: A primer for TK-12 board members,” which covered five elements that local educational agencies can explore as they consider artificial intelligence (AI) and how it may fit into their schools.
Those include developing guiding principles, responsible use agreements and policy around student data privacy as well as establishing the role of institutional technology leaders and AI literacy, as discussed by Laurel Nava, deputy executive director of California IT in Education (CITE), and Kelly Hilton, director of technology at San Ramon Valley School District and a CITE-certified chief technology officer.
Nava explained how AI is likely already available (or soon will be) via software and systems LEAs are using, and that while some of the technology can be embraced, leaders should proceed with caution to protect sensitive data and student and staff privacy and safety.
“Increasingly, AI is being embedded into some of the existing tools that school districts are already using, such as student information systems, enterprise resource planning systems and more,” Nava said. “And on the benefit side, this can really allow our district certificated and classified staff to analyze data, generate suggestions for actions, and implement those much more efficiently than in the past.
“AI can be really efficient in making some recommendations when you’re giving it disparate groups of data and asking it to meet certain goals,” she continued. “On the other hand, all of these AI add-ons that are coming into these systems, they’re accessing some of the most critical student data.”
Currently, a single student record can sell on the dark web for more than $500, Nava noted. The data has value because as minors, most students have clean credit histories. “It’s our responsibility as districts to maintain the security of that,” Nava stated.
CITE, along with state and legal partners, drafted a privacy agreement (the National Data Privacy Agreement) that LEAs can use when procuring an edtech vendor to ensure student data privacy, which includes an addendum for AI.
AI in action
Hilton described how AI has been enabled with Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s CoPilot platforms and how it can be used in classrooms.
With both tools, “a user who has an account can go and use it in the same way as an open prompting tool as you would have with ChatGPT,” Hilton said. As her district, San Ramon Valley SD, utilizes G Suite, she walked attendees through some functions of Gemini, including Deep Research (a research assistant), Canvas (creating and editing documents and code) and Gems (similar to a learning coach, according to Hilton) and how they may be used by educators and trustees.
Hilton said that staff training on Gemini is underway and shared that a benefit of it being used by employees is a level of assurance that sensitive data isn’t shared outside of the LEA’s scope. Soon, students will have access too.
“Recently it was announced that Google has the safeguards in place that allow school districts to turn [Gemini] on for students who are ages 13 and above,” she added. “So, as the IT director in San Ramon, we’ve been doing some work with our staff to really do some training on Gemini so that they understand how it works before we turn it on and we’re planning to turn it on in the fall.”
Key to proper implementation is creating the right structure to allow all users to feel confident and responsible in using AI. Hilton showed an AI roadmap (see slide 17) as an example of pathways for IT leads as well as other staff. She also gave an overview of student and staff acceptable use of technology agreements.
In San Ramon Valley USD, pre-existing strategic directions, learner profile and guiding principles were foundational pieces to organizational conversations around AI.
AI literacy
Assembly Bill 2876, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2024, mandates that components of media and AI literacy be included in upcoming curriculum adoption cycles, including those for mathematics, science and history–social science.
Under the bill, “AI literacy is defined as knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to: Understand AI principles, concepts, and applications; use AI tools responsibly and effectively; recognize limitations, risks, and ethical implications of AI; think critically about AI’s influence on society and daily life.”
For LEAs, this legislation means that professional development for teachers on AI literacy will be required.
Resources
The fundamentals of AI, potential benefits and risks, data privacy agreements, next steps for LEAs to assess AI use in classrooms with regard to privacy, and additional resources, including a few listed below, were among other topics that presenters delved into.
- CSBA: AI resources, including sample resolutions and policies, promising practices, a roadmap facilitation guide and more
- CITE: AI Resources Guide for IT Teams, including best practices, a technical checklist and sample policies
- California Department of Education: AI resource kit
- TeachAI: AI Guidance for Schools Toolkit
- AI for Education: A Guide for Students
View a recording of the webinar, presentation slides.
