RALEIGH – The use of artificial intelligence in K-12 schools is evolving as rapidly as the technology itself.
Last month, the use of AI on the K-12 became national through an initiative launched by the White House.
In late August, First Lady Melania Trump announced the Presidential Artificial Intelligence (AI) challenge, encouraging the participation of K-12 students and educators across the country. This challenge is part of the April 2025 Executive Order on AI on AI to “establish global control of America” in this area.
“The challenge for President AI will be the first step in preparing the next generation with a fundamental understanding of this important new technology,” Trump said at a news conference.
At least 26 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, have issued some guidance on AI, according to a map created by the website AI for education. Its map includes North Carolina, particularly referring to a guidebook created in January 2024 under the guidance of former state principal Katherine Truitt.
The North Carolina AI Guidebook was created to ensure age-appropriate and safe and meaningful integration of technology in K-12 classrooms. The guidebook's announcement stated that the state's Department of Public Guidance is the “4th State Education Division nationwide to issue guidance to schools on the use of this cutting-edge technology.”
The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), the state's largest district, previously banned the use of AI, and its school board has been working on developing AI policies and strategies to use them this year. WCPSS is currently blocking the use of the popular AI application ChatGPT, but it will enable you to use Google's AI engine Gemini.
Wake County Public Schools Principal Robert Taylor said the district is taking a measured approach to using AI.
“AI is just one of the latest and most up-to-date technologies,” Taylor said. “It's not that different from what we've seen in the past, but that's what I call an exponential type of product. …We don't want a policy that restricts. We need a policy that supports it.
“Our job as a society is to know and understand that AI can work and humans can work, and that what we can do is use it for that purpose.”
WCPSS is currently using Gemini to catalog books in classrooms and shares its inventory with parents as required by the Transparency Act passed by Congress. Lisa Luten, WCPSS communications director, explained that teachers were filming the books and supplying images to Gemini.
Luten pointed out that this process teaches the use of AI while saving time in manual work.
“This is the perfect example of how to use AI to say that this is better than humans,” Taylor said of the book's catalog project. “Snap the photos and 90% of the boom and work takes place in 10 minutes.”
Taylor also addressed critics of using AI in classrooms that are not sure education will improve.
“I always bring people back to calculators in the 1970s. … There was an idea that calculators would ruin education,” Taylor said. “But what we decided was that it was just a tool. We had to teach our kids how to do the calculations, but the calculator was a quick way to make calculations that they know how to do them manually.”
Taylor said WCPSS has a responsibility to prepare students in a world with AI, but he sees it as a tool to enhance education rather than as an alternative to traditional education. He gave an example of a third-grader who finds ways to use AI to better phrase sentences, but Taylor also emphasized that it is necessary to teach students to maintain academic integrity by not relying on AI and using cheats.
Data privacy is also a concern WCPSS is considering in its policy.
WCPSS Chief Information Officer Shashi Buddula said the board and staff work sessions on AI will focus on board education on technology.
“The goal of this series of conversations with our board is to make sure you have a basic understanding of what is happening in the AI world,” Buddula said.
“We want to be careful to make sure that the policy, what we've implemented, has the right guardrails,” Buddula said. “We are taking those calculated steps as we move forward.
“Last year, our students had access to ChatGpt, which was Wild West. But now it's a much more defined boundary.”
AI is not only discussed for classroom use. It is also being considered for the safety of schools.
The North Carolina Legislature funded the AI School Safety Pilot Program, Senate Bill 382, which became law last year. The pilot gave New Hanover County schools $3.2 million and Davidson County schools $2 million to implement the AI Integrated School Safety Program for existing “Camera, Video Management Systems and Warning Protocols.”
