Teaching with AI: how do I plan and give feedback without breaking my school's rules?

Short answer

Use AI to draft, and keep the decisions yourself. Before anything else, read your school's AI policy and find out which tools are approved. Never paste student names, grades or records into a personal chatbot account. Put your own objectives and rubric (your marking criteria) in first, let the assistant suggest variants, examples and draft comments, then check every fact and edit every comment before a student sees it. Tell students and parents what you use AI for.

Who this is for. K-12 and college teachers and tutors who already use a chat assistant (such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot) or are about to.

Where teachers are now

In a Gallup survey of 1,952 US K-12 educators in July and August 2026, 59% said they used AI tools in the 2025-26 school year, and nearly two-thirds of users said it gave them more time (Gallup, 14 October 2026, survey by a pollster with the Walton Family Foundation, an education charity). The time gain is what teachers reported, not something measured.

Guidance lags behind use. In an earlier 2026 Gallup survey of 2,069 public school teachers (February to March 2026), just 18% reported receiving any formal guidance on AI from school administrators, and 34% received no guidance at all on the tasks asked about (Gallup, 26 May 2026, survey with the Walton Family Foundation).

So if your school has no written policy, you are in the majority. That makes step 1 below more important, not less.

The rules that apply to student data

US. FERPA (the federal student-records privacy law) "prohibits the improper disclosure of personally identifiable information contained in or derived from education records", according to the US Department of Education's Student Privacy Policy Office (ED, back-to-school letter, 26 August 2026, government guidance). When a school uses an outside online service, the department says the school must keep "direct control" over how that provider uses and keeps the records. An outside provider can receive records without parental consent only under conditions such as that direct control and using the data "only for authorized purposes" (ED, Responsibilities of third-party service providers under FERPA, 2015, government guidance).

England. The Department for Education says "it is recommended that personal data is not used in generative AI tools" and that staff must use their professional judgement (DfE, Generative AI in education, government guidance). Its data protection guidance, updated 14 October 2026, tells staff to check that a tool is approved by the school and to check with the data protection officer or IT lead before entering any pupil data (DfE, AI and data protection in schools, government guidance).

The weekly routine

Our suggestion. It assumes about 30 minutes, once a week.

1. Check the policy and the tool list (first time, then once a term). Which tools are approved? Is student work allowed in them? Who do you ask? If there is no answer, email your administrator and keep the reply.
2. Plan from your objectives. Write what students should know or do by the end of the week. Give that to the assistant and ask for variants: easier and harder versions, worked examples, exit questions (a quick end-of-lesson check). Do not ask it to choose what to teach.
3. Check every fact. Assistants state wrong dates, formulas and quotes with confidence. Work each answer key yourself, and check facts against your textbook or a source you trust.
4. Feedback from your rubric. Paste your rubric and one anonymised piece of work. Ask for draft comments tied to the rubric. Rewrite them in your voice, and decide the grade yourself.
5. Keep a short log. Note what you used AI for that week. It makes telling parents easy and helps if anyone asks.

Remove names and identifying details before you paste anything, as covered in What not to paste.

I teach <SUBJECT_AND_GRADE>. This week's objectives:
<OBJECTIVES>

Write:
1. Three practice questions per objective: one easier, one at level, one harder.
2. One worked example per objective, step by step.
3. Three exit questions with answers.
Use only what is in the objectives. If anything is ambiguous, ask me before writing.
Mark any fact, date or figure I should check with [CHECK].

Replace the following:

• <SUBJECT_AND_GRADE>: such as Year 9 science or 8th-grade math.
• <OBJECTIVES>: your own objectives, one per line.

Here is my rubric:
<RUBRIC>

Here is one anonymised piece of student work by "Student A":
<WORK>

Draft 3 to 5 comments tied to specific rubric rows. For each, quote the line
of work it refers to. Include one thing done well and one next step.
Do not give a grade or a score. I will decide the grade.

Replace the following:

• <RUBRIC>: your marking criteria.
• <WORK>: the work with the name, and anything else that could identify the student, removed. Only paste student work at all if your policy allows it.

If you suspect a student used AI

Don't accuse anyone on the strength of a detector score. Detectors make mistakes, and some have flagged writers whose first language is not English. Follow the steps in AI detectors: if you are holding a detector result instead: talk to the student, look at drafts and notes, and ask them to explain their work.

Tell students and parents

A short note at the start of term works. An illustrative example:

This term I use an AI assistant to help me draft practice questions and
feedback comments. I check every question and decide every grade myself.
I don't put your child's name or records into any AI tool that isn't
approved by <SCHOOL>. Questions are welcome: <CONTACT>.

Replace the following:

• <SCHOOL>: your school or district.
• <CONTACT>: your school email.

For what students should and should not use AI for at home, point parents to Kids, homework and a family AI plan. For older students, Learning without losing the learning covers using AI as a tutor rather than an answer machine.

Limits

Sources

1. Gallup. Teachers using AI say it frees time, 14 October 2026. Survey by a pollster, with the Walton Family Foundation. Link
2. Gallup. Most teachers receive no formal guidance on AI, 26 May 2026. Survey by a pollster, with the Walton Family Foundation. Link
3. US Department of Education, Student Privacy Policy Office. Back-to-school letter, 26 August 2026. Government guidance. Link
4. US Department of Education, Privacy Technical Assistance Center. Responsibilities of third-party service providers under FERPA, 2015. Government guidance. Link
5. Department for Education (England). Generative artificial intelligence in education, accessed October 2026. Government guidance. Link
6. Department for Education (England). AI and data protection in schools, updated 14 October 2026. Government guidance. Link

Changes

1. v1.019 Oct 2026first version