Board to seek public comment on AI use in classrooms, staff say policy will require 'closed system'

The Leon County School Board voted to advertise a draft artificial intelligence policy for public hearing and adoption on May 13, 2025. District staff told the board that the policy aims to set acceptable uses for employees and students, with data privacy safeguards and a requirement to use a "closed system."

Mister Blessing, who summarized the draft policy at the board meeting, said the policy "is to lay out what the acceptable uses will be for our school district, employees, students alike, assuring that we have data privacy guardrails in place." When asked to explain a closed system, Blessing said: "In a closed system... when you upload a document, it uses the document for the purpose that you asked it to and then it forgets it. So, it's not capturing any of our student data or it's not capturing any proprietary information that our teachers may upload."

Board members asked about stakeholder input. Staff said the draft drew language from policy sources including Neola and Volusia County and that a committee of principals — including teachers who are already doing internal training — provided input. Dr. Nicholas and other board members asked that teachers have an opportunity to review and give feedback on the administrative procedures the district will write if the policy is adopted.

The board approved the motion to advertise the policy unanimously. Staff said administrative procedures responding to specific classroom and staff concerns would be drafted after the policy was advertised and before final adoption.

Ending The vote sends the draft policy to a public hearing on May 13, 2025. District staff said they will prepare administrative procedures and seek teacher and principal input to shape campus implementation before returning to the board for final adoption.