How do I write an AI policy for my classroom or co-op?

Write the rule at the level of the step in the work, not at the level of the tool. "Do not use AI" is unenforceable and, worse, unusable: the spellchecker uses AI, the search results are AI summaries, the phone keyboard predicts the next word. A student genuinely trying to comply cannot. Most academic-integrity incidents in this subject begin as honest confusion, and a policy that removes the confusion prevents more of them than any detector.

A good policy fits on one page and takes about an hour to write.

The five questions your policy has to answer

Which steps may it touch? Name them. Understanding the material, generating ideas, drafting, editing, checking facts, formatting. A typical position: yes to understanding, brainstorming and proofreading; no to drafting the argument; case-by-case on editing.

What has to be declared? A one-line statement at the end of the work: which tool, for which step, and what the student changed. This is the highest-value clause in any school AI policy, because writing the sentence forces the student to think about what they did.

What may never go in? Other people's names, anything about another student, grades, medical or family detail, passwords. Give the reason — that it leaves your control — rather than just the prohibition.

What happens if the rule is broken? Say it in advance and make the first consequence redoing the work under conditions you can observe, not a permanent label. Reserve escalation for concealment rather than use.

Who decides the grey areas? You do, and students should be told to ask before rather than explain after. Make asking cheap.

A worked example you can adapt

Something like this, on the assignment sheet rather than in a handbook nobody opens:

You may use AI tools to help you understand the reading, to quiz yourself, to brainstorm, and to check spelling and grammar. You may not use them to write the work or to decide what the work argues. If you use a tool for anything, add one line at the end: which tool, what you used it for, what you changed. Never put anyone's name, grades or personal details into a tool. If you are not sure whether something is allowed, ask me before you do it — you will not get in trouble for asking.

Six sentences, and a fourteen-year-old can apply every one of them.

Two things to leave out

A list of banned products. It is out of date the week you write it, and it implies that anything not listed is fine.

Threats about detection. Claiming you can always tell is a bluff, and students talk to each other. Detection tools produce false positives, unevenly — writing by students with English as an additional language is flagged at higher rates — and a policy that leans on them will eventually put you in an argument you cannot win.

Redesign one assignment while you are at it

If a task can be completed well by a model that has never met your class, the policy is doing work the assignment should be doing. The cheapest fixes: require a connection to something that happened in your room, ask for the outline and the draft as well as the final piece, or add two minutes of spoken defense for everyone. Process artifacts are tedious to fake and they are where the teaching was anyway.

If you are in a state that now requires one

Several do. Oklahoma's SB 1734 requires district AI policies covering approved uses, data protection and educator oversight before the 2027-28 school year, and bars AI from high-stakes decisions. Idaho's SB 1227 requires local policies and compliance with student-data privacy law, the parental rights act, FERPA, CIPA and COPPA. Maryland and Virginia require district policies and state guidance.

A co-op or a homeschool group is not covered by any of these. It is still worth having the page, because parents ask, and because having thought it through once is what lets you answer well when a situation arrives mid-term.

Review it once a term

Put a date on it. A policy written in September that still says "students may not use AI to search" in February, after the search engine started summarizing every result with AI, is teaching students that rules are decorative. Ten minutes a term keeps it honest.