MANASQUAN — In light of the rapid evolution of easily accessible artificial intelligence tools, the Manasquan Board of Education has introduced a policy to begin putting parameters on student use of artificial intelligence. The goal is to enhance learning opportunities with the technology tool while cracking down on improper uses.
At its meeting on Tuesday, July 15, the board amended its academic integrity policy and introduced a new policy, “acceptable use of generative artificial intelligence” on first reading. Both policy changes will be voted on for adoption at the board’s next meeting on August 19.
The district’s academic integrity policy, policy 5701 formerly referred to as “plagiarism,” now includes verbiage addressing improper uses of AI in the Manasquan school district in line with the newly introduced policy.
According to Assistant Superintendent Jesse Place, the policy introductions stem from recommendations from the district’s AI committee, which was formed at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year and is made up of teachers, administrators and technology staff.
“The Board of Education recognizes the use of artificial intelligence may result in increased and enhanced learning opportunities for students in the school district. The board adopts this policy to provide guidelines and expectations for student use of generative AI,” the acceptable use of generative artificial intelligence policy states.
The policy establishes that artificial intelligence tools “are not inherently knowledgeable and are trained from large amounts of data collected from various sources,” and therefore results of AI tools “may be inaccurate, inappropriate or incomplete.”
As a result, the policy states, to both ensure responsible use and maintain academic integrity district students must comply with the acceptable use of generative artificial intelligence plan, which will include proper citations and/or documentation methods to support the content provided by an artificial intelligence tool in a student assignment.
According to Place, the acceptable use of generative artificial intelligence plan has been drafted by the AI committee and will be in place by the beginning of the school year this September, following the board of education’s final approval of the policy introduced on July 15.
The policy lists a series of issues that the artificial intelligence plan will address. The district plan will establish an explanation of how, when and to what extent a staff member may permit a student to use artificial intelligence in assignments, procedures to review and approve artificial intelligence tools used by students and procedures to alert district parents about student use of AI.
The plan will also include a list of AI uses that violate school policy and code of conduct stemming from improper uses including plagiarism and the misuse of AI to create misinformation or to misrepresent others with the intent of harming, bullying or intimidating an individual.
The plan will include consequences if a student is to violate the AI policy and place procedures in line in the event a student is suspected of plagiarism using AI, while also recommending a list of acceptable AI platforms or tools that may be used by students in assignments.
Lastly, the policy states that the plan will establish the method or format to be used by students on how to properly cite or document content generated from an AI tool or platform.
According to the policy, the superintendent may designate a staff member to serve as an AI coordinator to oversee the use of AI tools, and may designate additional staff or committees to oversee the use of all AI tools.
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