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V2.0 · Arizona Edition · Prompt-Ed

K–12 Student AI Use Guidelines

A free, openly licensed sample framework for student AI use. Guidelines for the classroom, pointers for the policy work that belongs with your board and counsel.

Free to adapt CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Aligned with AZ GenAI Guidance v26.01 Reviewed annually
40+
Schools
Already At Work

These guidelines are rolling out into classrooms.

Built for real classrooms and tested inside them — elementary classrooms, middle school syllabi, high school assignments, and family conversations. A real framework, moving into real schools.

What changed in V2.0 · September 2026

A substantial rewrite of V1.0 (April 2026). V2 is a guidelines framework, not a policy document. Sample enforcement clauses, breach response procedures, Data Privacy Agreement templates, and vendor vetting mechanics were removed and replaced with a directory of where that work belongs. New: the eight ethical considerations from Arizona GenAI Guidance v26.01, including Mental Well-Being, Environmental Impact, and Cybersecurity, plus a four-literacies framing and the 3ssential implementation moves. Adopters still using V1 can find it at prompt-ed.org/guidelines-v1.

What's in This Framework
12 sections, ready to adapt and bring to your governance conversation
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01
Vision
What these guidelines are, what they are not, and the core belief behind them.
02
5 AI Use Tiers
Assignment-level framework from no AI through full exploration.
03
Student Guidelines
Twelve commitments students make when using AI for school work.
04
Educator Guidance
How teachers use AI to support, not automate, their work.
05
Literacies
AI, digital, media and information, and technology literacy.
06
Academic Integrity
Transparency over detection, and how to respond to suspected misuse.
07
Responsible & Ethical Considerations
The eight considerations from Arizona GenAI Guidance v26.01.
08
Family Communication
What families can expect, and honesty about embedded AI.
09
What You Also Need
A directory of the policy work that belongs with your board and counsel.
10
FAQs
10 questions from families, teachers, and administrators.
11
Glossary
25 key terms, from agentic AI to sycophancy.
12
Resources
Arizona resources first, then national frameworks and research.
Step 1
Create your draft
Interactive: Try It ↓
Customize for Your District
Generate a complete working draft of the K–12 Student AI Use Guidelines for your school or district.

This sample framework is yours to adapt. Fill in your school or district information and the tool generates a complete personalized draft, ready to copy, review with your team, and share with your community. No account required.

2
Implement it
Four early moves, built on Arizona’s 3ssential framework
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Arizona GenAI Guidance v26.01 (p. 34) names three essential early moves, the “3ssential” framework, that help schools move from discussion to action. This framework adopts all three and adds a fourth for family engagement.

1
Determine and clearly communicate approved AI tools
Start with a small list of tools that meet privacy, security, and instructional expectations, and publish it. The list can grow as understanding grows. Section 9, items 2 and 3, point to where tool vetting belongs.
2
Train teachers and staff on top-line guardrails
This is safety training, not deep professional development: protecting data, questioning outputs, and maintaining human oversight. Deeper learning, including the AI Classroom Toolkit, comes over time.
3
Clarify expectations for GenAI use
Common Sense Media (2024) found that over 60% of students said their school had no rules about generative AI or that they did not know whether it did. Publishing these guidelines, with your local adaptations, directly addresses that.
4
Communicate with families
Send home a short summary of the guidelines and name a contact for questions. Section 8 gives you the principles.
Going further? Join the Arizona AI Learning Network through the Arizona AI Alliance, and see the Implementation Recommendations chapter of Arizona GenAI Guidance v26.01 (pp. 32 to 36). For how these guidelines relate to formal board policy, see the Policy vs. Guidelines Companion below.
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Policy vs. Guidelines Companion
How to decide which content belongs in formal policy and which belongs in guidelines
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The short version

Policy is adopted by the governing body, formal, and harder to amend. It carries provisions with legal weight, governance obligations, or state-mandated content.

Guidelines are administrative and can be updated by the superintendent, head of school, or cabinet without a governing-body vote. They carry pedagogy, implementation details, and anything that needs to evolve as technology changes.

AI moves faster than governance cycles. Codifying tier definitions or approved-tools lists in policy means amending policy several times a year. Most schools need both layers: formal policy for the legal scaffolding, guidelines for the pedagogy and practice.

A note on governance structures

“Governing body” means different things depending on your school type:

  • Public districts: elected school board; subject to state-mandated policy requirements.
  • Public charter schools: charter board; public and private obligations vary by state.
  • Independent and private schools: Board of Trustees; few state mandates (FERPA applies only if federally funded; COPPA always applies). Policy vs. guidelines is a governance-maturity choice rather than a legal necessity, though still important for insurance, accreditation, and litigation risk.
  • Parochial and diocesan schools: policy often sits at the diocese level, with the school operating under administrative guidelines within that framework.
  • Proprietary and micro-schools: often no formal board; the head of school is the authority. The distinction may be less formal, but legal-exposure items still apply.

Wherever this guide says “board,” read “your school’s governing body.”

What typically belongs in policy
  • State statutory compliance (for example, device and social media rules)
  • Device rules, monitoring rights, and screen-viewing disclosures
  • Data privacy, vendor vetting, and required Data Privacy Agreement terms
  • Prohibited uses: deepfakes, AI-generated sexual content depicting minors, harassment, impersonation
  • Consequences and enforcement
  • Family notification and opt-out procedures, where law requires them
  • Breach response, record retention, and deletion
  • Photography and recording consent
  • Anything affecting student due process
What typically belongs in guidelines
  • Tier definitions, examples, and assignment-level selection
  • Student and educator commitments
  • Classroom practices and the teacher misuse playbook
  • AI literacy scope and professional learning
  • FAQs and glossary
  • Approved-tools lists, which change often
How this framework is structured

This sample framework is published as guidelines only. V1.0 included sample policy clauses; V2.0 removed them so that no school adopts legal language without counsel review. Section 9 of the generated draft, What You Also Need, names where each policy item belongs and where to start. A common pattern: adopt the guidelines administratively, and have the governing body adopt a shorter policy that covers the legal scaffolding. The guidelines reference the policy, and the policy references the guidelines.

A decision worksheet

For each section of your adoption, ask:

  1. Does state or federal law require this in formal policy? If yes, policy.
  2. Does this affect due-process rights, enforcement, or data-privacy obligations? If yes, policy.
  3. Is this likely to need changes two or more times per school year? If yes, guidelines.
  4. Is this a pedagogical or implementation detail? If yes, guidelines.
  5. When in doubt, consult your counsel.

Reviewed September 2026. This companion is advisory, not legal advice. Consult counsel before adopting any policy. Reviewed annually alongside the framework.