AI at your child's school: questions you can ask

You can ask your child’s school which AI tools your child uses, what information those tools receive, where that information goes, and what rules staff and students follow. These are fair questions for any parent or carer, and a good answer does not need to be long. This article suggests the questions, explains why each one matters, and describes what a helpful answer might sound like.

Start from the same side as the teachers

Schools are working out how to support staff who are trying AI tools for planning and paperwork. Our founder, a teacher, put it this way: “Currently, AI is being used haphazardly by teachers to help with their workflow. We shouldn’t be penalizing them. We should be educating and providing them with the best tools and training.”

So it helps to ask your questions as a partner, not as an inspector. Most of them are questions the school is asking itself. A teacher may not know every answer on the spot, and that is fine. The school’s leadership or ICT staff are often the right people to follow up.

Which AI tools will my child use, and for what?

Start with the list. Some tools are for staff only, such as a lesson planner. Others are used by students directly, such as a writing helper or a maths practice tool. AI features also appear inside software the school already uses, so it is worth asking about those too.

It also helps to ask what each tool is for. A tool used to plan a lesson carries very different risks from one your child types into every day. A tool’s terms often set a minimum age as well, so you can ask whether your child is old enough under those terms.

Does my child need an account, and what does it ask for?

Some tools need only a school email address. Others ask for a name, a birthday or more.

In Victorian government schools, the department’s generative AI policy (read 25 September 2026) says schools must get opt-in consent from parents and carers before using a generative AI tool that needs personal information beyond a student’s school email address and a password. Where a tool needs no more than that, the policy says schools should give students a chance to opt out, and encourages schools to tell parents and carers how the tool will be used. Schools in other sectors or states have their own rules, so ask your school which ones apply.

Where does what my child types go?

This is the central privacy question, and it breaks down into six smaller ones. You do not need to ask all six. Even one or two will tell you a lot about how the school chose the tool.

Each link explains what the question means and why it matters. A helpful answer names the plan the school uses, because the free and school versions of the same product can have quite different terms.

Is my child’s name kept out?

Many AI tasks do not need a student’s name at all. A teacher can write report comments with a placeholder, or give feedback without saying whose work it is. Our founder notes: “Schools do have privacy rules. Mainly removing student PII.” PII means personally identifiable information, such as a name, address or date of birth.

In Victorian government schools, the same department policy requires schools to direct staff and students not to put personal information about students or staff into generative AI tools. You can ask how your school does this in practice, and whether your child has been shown how to keep their own details out.

How does the school use AI for learning?

Privacy is one part of the picture. The other is whether AI helps your child learn. We think AI helps learning when the task keeps the thinking with the student. You might ask whether your child is expected to try a problem first, and how teachers can tell that the work shows your child’s own thinking.

A good answer might describe when AI is allowed in a subject, when it is not, and why. It may also mention how the school talks with students about honest use.

If the school does not know yet

Sometimes the honest answer is that the school is still finding out. That is not a warning sign on its own. Schools often have to read long terms from companies that change them, and a clear “not confirmed” is better than a confident guess. As our founder says, “Things are changing so fast even this opinion might change.”

If a question has no answer yet, you could ask when the school expects to know, or who is looking into it. Putting your question in a short email gives the school time to find the right person and a reply you can keep.

If the school names a tool, you can read what the company’s own pages say about it. As we publish tool checks, our tool directory sets this out for each tool.