Before using an AI service to design curriculum, get approval for the specific tool and purpose from your school or district, and consult its privacy and IT staff. Avoid entering student-identifying or record-linked details unless the institution has reviewed the use and established that disclosure is permitted under applicable law and policy. In most curriculum-design tasks, fictional or generalized learner profiles can provide useful context without exposing a student’s education records.
Start with school approval, not a personal account
The U.S. Department of Education advises teachers to check with school or district administration to see whether an online application is approved for classroom use, and to consult IT about security and privacy vulnerabilities. That guidance applies to AI services used in curriculum design: approval of one tool or classroom use does not automatically approve a different service, feature, integration, or purpose. See the Department’s FAQ on online tools used as part of a course.
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Before creating accounts, connecting a learning-management system, uploading student work, or enabling integrations, ask the district’s privacy lead and IT staff to review the proposed use. The district should determine whether the service and its terms fit local policy and applicable state and federal requirements.
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Know what counts as identifying student information
Under FERPA, personally identifiable information (PII) from education records can include direct identifiers, indirect identifiers, and information that becomes identifying when combined with other details or linked with information reasonably available elsewhere. Removing a name therefore does not necessarily make a prompt anonymous. The Department’s explanation of education records and FERPA regulations describe the relevant definitions and conditions.
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In practice, avoid sharing details such as student numbers, contact information, exact birth dates, grades, individualized education or accommodation details, behavior records, distinctive family circumstances, or recognizable excerpts of student work unless the district has approved that data use. These examples are practical applications of the PII definition, not a complete statutory list. Whether a particular detail is protected depends on the facts, including whether it is maintained in an education record.
Use a fictional learner profile
Instead of asking an AI service to adapt a lesson for a named student or sharing a distinctive case history, give it only the instructional context it needs: “Create three reading supports for a fictional seventh-grade learner who benefits from short passages and vocabulary previews.” Curriculum goals, grade band, subject, and standards can often guide useful suggestions without exposing a real student’s record.
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Review the service and its actual terms
Read the agreement that governs the school’s use, not just marketing material or a general privacy statement. The Department provides a model terms-of-service checklist to help schools examine how online services collect, use, and transmit information.
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For an AI service, ask the provider and district reviewers questions such as:
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- What information does the service collect from prompts, outputs, accounts, and integrations?
- How is that information used or transmitted, and can inputs or outputs be retained or used for model improvement or human review?
- Who can access the information, and do subprocessors receive it?
- What are the retention and deletion rules, including when the district ends the service?
- Do the signed institutional terms limit use to the approved purpose and address access, security, retention, deletion, and redisclosure?
These are due-diligence questions for AI services; they are not a verbatim federal checklist. The school should confirm that contractual terms provide the required institutional control and limits for the particular data and use.
Apply FERPA to the school-provider relationship
FERPA generally requires signed and dated written consent before a school discloses PII from education records, unless a regulatory exception applies. A provider may be treated as a school official under an exception only if the conditions are met. Among other things, it must perform an institutional service the school would otherwise use staff to perform, remain under the institution’s direct control regarding the use and maintenance of education-record PII, and be subject to limits on unauthorized use and redisclosure. See the Department’s FERPA resources and the FERPA regulations.
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A separate studies exception can permit disclosure for a study to improve instruction, but it has specific conditions, including a written agreement stating the purpose, scope, duration, data, use and identification limits, and destruction requirements. It should not be treated as blanket permission for ordinary commercial AI prompting. A privacy policy by itself does not establish that an AI service qualifies for an exception, and FERPA does not certify products as compliant.
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Use the least detail that will do the job
Try broad, fictional, or appropriately de-identified descriptions first. Do not assume that initials, a student number, or a pseudonym remove the risk: combinations of indirect details can still identify a learner. FERPA regulations allow release of de-identified information only after a reasonable determination that a student is not personally identifiable, taking account of other reasonably available information.
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Keep a record of the approved use
For practical governance, record which tool and purpose were approved, what data categories staff may use, which institutional terms apply, the expected retention and deletion arrangements, and whom to contact about a suspected incident. Revisit the decision if the provider changes features, terms, integrations, or data practices. This helps the school maintain oversight; it is not a specific documentation template prescribed by FERPA.
Compare AI options against the same criteria
When considering more than one service, use common institutional criteria rather than relying on brand claims or an unsupported product ranking.
| Review area | What to establish |
|---|---|
| Approval and control | Is the exact use approved, and can the district retain direct control over education-record information? |
| Collection and purpose | What inputs, outputs, account details, and telemetry are collected, and how are they used or transmitted? |
| Retention and redisclosure | Are retention limits, deletion processes, access boundaries, and onward-sharing limits clear in the governing terms? |
| Security and operations | Has district IT reviewed security and integrations, and are appropriate safeguards in place? |
| Instructional need | Can the task be accomplished with synthetic or generalized learner examples instead of identifiable records? |
What FERPA does—and does not—settle
The Department says FERPA does not prescribe a particular security product or set of technical controls, while advising institutions to take appropriate steps to safeguard education records. Its guidance on protecting privacy when using online educational services points schools toward privacy and security considerations. A school must still assess the actual service, contract, data flow, and intended use.
FERPA is not the only consideration. State student-privacy laws, district policies, age-related requirements, and vendor contract terms may impose additional limits. Requirements depend on jurisdiction and circumstances, so educators should follow their institution’s privacy, legal, and IT review process rather than treating federal guidance as a complete approval checklist.
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