RIVERSIDE — Ohio public schools are required to adopt a formal artificial intelligence policy as the new school year begins under a new state law.
Districts across the state must either customize their own guidelines or adopt the policy created by the Ohio Department of Education.
The state mandate requires all public school districts to set official guidelines governing how students and staff use AI in the classroom. Local leaders are balancing classroom integration with safeguards regarding privacy, academic integrity and foundational learning.
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Some local school districts spent extensive time preparing for AI in the classroom ahead of the state requirement.
Chad Wyen, superintendent of Mad River Local Schools in Riverside, said his district spent about three years developing an AI policy focused on student data privacy and utilizing AI as a learning tool rather than a crutch.
“The reality is, it’s not going to go away. So again, we need to teach our, our students and our staff how to be good consumers of AI,” Wyen said.
Mad River Local Schools created its policy framework in collaboration with the Montgomery County Educational Service Center over three sessions.
“We had a good understanding of what we could use those tools for in order to best serve our students. In addition to that, we also worked with the Montgomery County, SC, and we had three sessions that we spent a lot of time crafting our playbook. And with all that, we felt pretty confident that we could come into the school year with a tool that made sense for major local schools,” Wyen said.
The district’s playbook outlines appropriate and inappropriate AI usage, and lists approved digital tools. Wyen noted that AI can assist students with document editing, project graphics, or acting as a peer tutor, though human oversight remains essential to verify information.
“It’s a great opportunity to review, you know, if you want to edit a document, if you want to use that as a peer tutor type situation, or if you’re working on a project, it’s a good tool to use to create graphics in that. but I also creates hallucinations, too, that aren’t vetted, that aren’t valid. And that’s where the human component comes in, because you really have to make sure that the output is as good as the input,” Wyen said.
The policy is designed to remain fluid and open to ongoing review as issues arise throughout the school year.
“We’re going to learn a lot this year. I don’t want to say we have all the answers. But we do have a good process in place to address things that come up that may cause concern with eye usage. And then we have ways to address that. So, I’m confident that our playbook will help us work through that process,” Wyen said.
While school administrators focus on implementation, some community members express concern about AI usage in curriculum. Sarah, the grandmother of a student in the West Carrollton School District, admitted the idea of AI in school curriculum makes her apprehensive.
“I think that the kids today are probably going to rely on it too much. Going home to Google information and not finding out the real history and things like that,” Sarah said.
She emphasized her belief that traditional learning tools, such as textbooks and direct instruction, remain core principles of effective education.
“I think that the history of the schools is, I think it’s just important to have that foundation and understanding still be old-fashioned with the old-fashioned textbooks and taking you back to the real history of it and not rely on an eye that might be false,” Sarah said.
Ohio is the first state to implement a statewide AI policy for public schools.
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