05/04/2026
Most schools have arrived at some version of the stoplight. Red means no AI. Yellow means AI with conditions. Green means AI use is permitted. Getting there — reaching a yes, a no, or a qualified maybe — has consumed years of committee meetings, professional development sessions, and policy drafts. For many schools, getting the light to turn is still the project.
But a growing number of educators have cleared that hurdle and are standing in the room that comes after. The light is yellow or green. A teacher has decided that AI use is going to happen in their classroom, under some set of conditions, for some defined purpose. And now they are looking at a blank page where the guidance should be.
The instinct in that room is to write an ethics policy.
It is the wrong instinct, and understanding why is the difference between a policy that does something and one that produces a document.
A Replacement Framework for the Ethical AI Use Debate