AI policy or AI guidance?

An AI policy establishes expectations and assigns responsibility. Guidance helps people apply those expectations to teaching and learning. Procedures explain how decisions are made and concerns are handled.

Schools need all three functions, though they do not necessarily need three separate documents. The important distinction is whether a provision establishes a requirement, explains how to meet one, or offers a recommendation.

What separates them

Policy establishes the school's governing requirements through its authorized adoption process, typically at board level. It should address durable questions: who may approve tools, what responsibilities users have, and how AI use relates to academic integrity and student privacy.

Guidance provides explanations, examples, and recommendations. It helps teachers and students understand what acceptable use looks like in practice and can be revised as questions arise.

Procedures describe how requirements are carried out: how a tool is reviewed, where students disclose assistance, who investigates a concern, and how a decision can be challenged.

The title alone does not determine a document's authority. Procedures and classroom rules may carry requirements established under an adopted policy. Guidance may also restate binding obligations. Schools should make the source of each requirement clear. Arizona law, for example, gives district governing boards responsibility for prescribing and enforcing both policies and procedures. A.R.S. § 15-341

Why the distinction matters in a dispute

Suppose a student uses AI to draft an assignment and receives an academic integrity consequence. The school needs to identify the applicable requirement, explain how it was communicated, and establish how the student's conduct violated it.

An existing academic integrity policy and a clearly authorized assignment rule may already address the situation. A separate AI policy is not necessarily the missing piece.

The problem arises when a school treats a recommendation as a prohibition or applies an expectation that students were never given. A detailed document cannot resolve that problem if its authority and intended use remain unclear.

What belongs in policy

Keep policy focused on requirements that should apply consistently across the school. These generally include:

• The relationship between AI use and existing academic integrity expectations.
• Responsibilities for disclosure and the authority to set assignment-specific requirements.
• Protection of student information and responsibility for approving tools.
• Accountability for work and decisions made with AI assistance.
• The process governing suspected misuse and review of decisions.

Before drafting, examine existing policies. Some provisions may need clarification or amendment rather than a separate AI document.

What belongs in guidance and procedures

Guidance should answer the questions people encounter in their work. It can include examples of acceptable assistance, sample disclosures, subject-specific scenarios, and explanations of why AI may be permitted on one assignment and restricted on another.

Procedures should make the next step clear. A teacher proposing a new tool needs to know where to submit it for review. A student questioning a decision needs to know whom to contact. Staff reviewing a concern need a consistent process to follow.

Assign responsibility for maintaining these materials and specify which changes require further approval. This allows examples and operational details to stay current while preserving oversight of substantive requirements.

How to use state and external guidance

Identify who issued a document, what authority it carries, and whether local action is needed to implement it.

Utah's State Board of Education publishes an AI framework that recognizes local policy. Arizona's Department of Education links to guidance developed by Northern Arizona University's Arizona Institute for Education and the Economy. These are useful resources, but citing them does not explain which provisions a district has adopted or how those provisions apply locally. Utah AI framework, Arizona education technology resources

Our guide to AI guidance for Arizona and Utah schools describes those resources in more detail.

Develop the documents together

Start with existing policy and a few realistic situations: a student uses AI to revise an essay, a teacher uploads assignments for feedback, or a family challenges an allegation of misuse.

Work through the decisions each situation requires. Identify which expectations must apply schoolwide, which decisions belong to teachers, and which steps need a documented procedure. Use those findings to draft and test the policy alongside its supporting materials.

Before publication, check that readers can distinguish requirements from recommendations and find out who has authority to decide. Our guide to what a school AI policy should include covers the substantive provisions.