Ouachita Parish board approves revisions to AI acceptable-use policy, adds teacher verification steps

The Ouachita Parish School Board on Thursday voted to adopt revisions to Policy EFAB, the district's employee and student acceptable-use policy for artificial intelligence, approving new teacher verification procedures, separate guidance for staff and students, and provisions addressing IEP and Section 504 accommodations.

Task force co-chairs Haley Holly and Garrett Rankin brought recommendations from the district's AI task force and presenters summarized the changes. A task force presenter told the board the draft clarifies "appropriate use and inappropriate use" and separates rules for staff and students so expectations are not combined in a single standard. The presenter said the policy adds steps teachers can take when they suspect unauthorized AI use, such as asking a student to explain the work, disclose AI prompts, or complete an alternate assignment.

Board members pressed presenters on how the district will determine whether work was AI-generated. The task force presenter cautioned that current AI-detection software is unreliable, noting a study in which an older dissertation was flagged incorrectly as AI-generated. The presenter told the board that the policy therefore relies on a combination of teacher verification steps and administrative procedures ("if a teacher believes a student has used AI in an unauthorized manner ... the teacher can say, 'tell me what prompts you used' or give an alternate assignment"), rather than on a single software detector.

District IT staff explained which AI tools are currently embedded in district Google accounts. Mr. Ambrose said the district's embedded assistant is Gemini and that Google provides auditing reports for activity on district-managed accounts, but that the district cannot track content created on external or personal accounts. He told the board, "Google does have a lot of auditing type reports," while noting those reports are limited to operations on the opsb.info accounts the district manages.

The policy also explicitly addresses students with individualized education programs or Section 504 plans; presenters said the draft includes language on how AI may be used in those contexts and pointed members to specific pages in the revision. Members discussed existing protocols for English-language learners and the use of Google Translate, noting parent permission is still required to add translation services to a student's Google suite.

Presenters said the district is exploring adoption of a single, approved platform through which student AI work would funnel. That approach would allow teachers to pull back-end verification records and index student work to confirm whether AI was used consistent with teacher allowances. The task force emphasized training for teachers, students and families on responsible AI use.

An unnamed board member moved to approve the recommended changes to Policy EFAB. The chair called for a voice vote; members responded "Aye," and the chair declared the motion carried. The transcript records the motion and the chair's announcement that it carried, but does not include a roll-call tally by member name.

Board members and presenters said the policy will be treated as a living document, to be revisited as AI tools and practices evolve. Next steps described in the meeting included additional task-force work on implementation details, staff review of district tools, and planned training for educators and families.