South Brunswick Eyes Fall Timeline For AI Classroom Guidelines

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — South Brunswick school officials said they are working to develop a districtwide framework for artificial intelligence use in classrooms, with an eye toward having more information ready for families and students sometime during this school year.

The discussion came up during a recent Board of Education meeting, when BOE member Rajesh Soni raised the issue of AI policy.

"One of the areas of my interest is AI, and we had a very, very heavy discussion on AI," Soni said. "My question is, do we have a timeline on when we are planning to introduce [an] AI framework, as we spoke? Again, the idea is for us to educate students on AI, how to become a good AI [user], how to leverage it in their benefit, and what not to do. So, do we know [a] tentative timeline?"

Assistant Superintendent Suzanne Luck-Born responded that the question tied into the district's code of conduct and acceptable use policy (AUP), and that a committee will take up the broader conversation about AI in the upcoming school year.

"I think the overall conversation about AI within our classrooms and instructional practices will be the work of the committee in the upcoming school year to really delineate based on grade level, which is important to think about the age group of the learner, but also the various subject areas where it's more applicable or not applicable," Luck-Born said. "So, to answer your question directly, during the course of this school year, we hope to produce more information in this area for our families and for our students."

Asked whether the district was targeting the second quarter of 2027 for a completed framework, Superintendent Bernard Bragen said that timeline would be "conservative" and that the goal is to move faster.

"I would hope to get it done before that," Bragen said. "The bulk of the impact and the input that we want is from our instructional staff who are with the kids every day... We're going to pick it up pretty quickly in the fall, and hope to have those iterations coming sooner than later, because it's here, and we have a wide variety of adoption of AI use in the classroom. Some in our coding classes use it very consistently and regularly, and some classes are very restrictive."

Soni said the inconsistency across classrooms is exactly why a districtwide framework is needed.

"The current approach is we are letting teachers decide, which is fine. But again, what happens? It becomes very inconsistent," Soni said. "So, having a more consistent [approach], what teachers should also have [is] a guideline, and a consistent guideline is super important. Again, it's to enable, not to prevent."

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