Board adopts AI policy and selects Magic School after eight‑school pilot

The New Haven Board of Education voted to adopt an artificial intelligence policy and move forward with Magic School as the district’s primary AI platform following an eight‑school pilot and committee review. Assistant Superintendent Keisha Red Hannans told the board the AI committee convened in April 2025 to address a “guidance gap,” an “operational gap” and a “preparation gap” and recommended a policy that keeps “humans in the loop.”

Red Hannans said teachers and administrators piloted two platforms and the committee “unanimously” recommended Magic School after surveying participating teachers. She summarized teacher feedback, saying Magic School scored “excellent to very good” on responsiveness, impact on student engagement and time‑saving automation and that 49 teachers across eight schools completed the survey. Magic School examples cited included automated feedback, chatbots used under teacher direction, differentiated lessons and multilingual material generation.

Becky Litchin, a Magic School representative, described the platform’s technical and privacy protections, stating the company holds “zero data retention contracts with all of our large language model providers” and that the vendor is FERPA, COPPA and SOC 2 compliant. Litchin added the vendor received a 95% rating from Common Sense Media and outlined the proposed implementation plan: onboarding and activation, differentiated professional learning during the year, a midyear adoption review, and additional training days.

Board members asked operational and oversight questions. President (chair) and board member Dr. Joiner requested a guidance document and evaluation rubrics to accompany the policy. Dr. Benitez asked for a public update on how the policy is working; Red Hannans said the district will develop implementation metrics and family outreach including workshops and a planned podcast. The presentation noted a short student AI certification (about 15–20 minutes) required for grades 5–12 before access to the platform.

The board’s action implements the district’s recently passed AI policy and initiates a vendor partnership that the superintendent’s office said will be deployed with training supports and ongoing evaluation. The board did not vote on specific contract dollar amounts during the presentation and indicated follow‑up reports and data reviews are planned.