Fenton District adopts student-handbook updates tied to new AI use guidance

Fenton Community High School District 100's board on May 27 approved student-handbook changes that explicitly add artificial intelligence to existing conduct and academic-integrity policies and add model language on AI-generated explicit images.

Administrators told the board they had spent 10 months building an AI implementation plan that responds to policy 6.235 and centers on three guiding principles: ‘‘humans in the lead’’ (treat AI as an assistant), safety and privacy, and equity and access. The presentation detailed a committee of administrators, teachers and volunteer students that piloted classroom frameworks and professional development and recommended updates to handbook language. "If we use AI, we must protect privacy, use it to extend our learning rather than skip the process and take full responsibility for verifying the accuracy of our final work," the presenter said.

The district described a stoplight model for classroom use: red for prohibited uses unless explicitly authorized, yellow for directed or supervised use, and green for unfettered use in tasks that will not replace learning. Administrators said the district is currently limiting network access to Google Gemini and Notebook LM and that Google’s school product settings prevent submitted queries from being used to train public models.

The handbook revisions the board approved modify three sections: renaming ‘‘misuse of electronics’’ to ‘‘misuse of electronics and technology’’ to address AI-generated sexually explicit images; adding ‘‘misuse of artificial intelligence’’ to the academic-dishonesty (plagiarism) language and preserving existing consequence procedures; and inserting model IPA handbook language under bullying/cyberbullying related to AI images. A board member asked administrators to consider additional language about wearable AI devices ("AI glasses") in the next revision.

Board members raised competing views during discussion. One trustee called the handbook language overly prescriptive and urged a stronger emphasis on how AI can empower students and on prompt-engineering skills. Administrators said their approach reflects uneven staff readiness and that universal professional development is planned, including mandatory training during institute days and ongoing coaching.

Next steps include finalizing student-handbook text for implementation next school year and continuing professional development for teachers. The district also said it has completed a SOPA agreement with Google and conducted a legal review of handbook language and user guidelines.