Montana School Boards Gradually Adopt AI Guidelines
Montana School Boards Gradually Adopt AI Guidelines
https://www.govtech.com/education/k-12/montana-school-boards-gradually-adopt-ai-guidelines
Publish Date: 2026-06-08 17:58:00
Source Domain: www.govtech.com
(TNS) — Montana school boards are starting to consider adding policy guidelines around generative artificial intelligence use in classrooms, with some using language provided by the Montana School Board Association.
The MTSBA policy “boilerplate” language, which district school boards can tweak depending on their specific needs, was created in conjunction with the Office of Public Instruction and the Montana Digital Academy and was released last fall.
School boards in Missoula, Florence and Stevensville are considering adopting this recommended AI language, which is intentionally broad to continue to apply as AI technology rapidly develops.
MTSBA Director Lance Melton said while the organization has had an academic honesty policy for years, this policy is meant to serve as a guide for how best to use AI, and also factor in legal student privacy and confidentiality requirements.
The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, protects students’ and parents’ personally identifiable information, which includes students’ names, addresses, Social Security numbers and date of birth. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, may also be applicable for student and family health information.
In an academic environment, teachers shouldn’t use a free AI tool and feed in a student exam with names to get an AI analysis of how to grade their work, Melton gave as an example.
SCHOOL BOARDS DISCUSS AI POLICY ADOPTION
The MTSBA policy establishes guidelines for “responsible, ethical, and equitable use and integration of artificial intelligence” while also “safeguarding privacy, empowering educators, promoting transparency, and ensuring human oversight.”
In discussing what AI policy language to adopt in Stevensville, the district’s AI Taskforce set out to do some independent research to ensure the policy made sense for the district. Taskforce members…
