Virginia public school divisions follow state guidelines for AI integration throughout education, and the state Department of Education said AI brings tremendous potential to transform education at all levels.
“By enabling more efficient, universal and deeper learning, AI can unlock new realms of knowledge that were previously unimaginable,” VDOE said.
Lynchburg City Schools said it follows this VDOE guidance, which encourages the responsible and effective use of AI in schools.
“Our I.T. and Teaching & Learning departments are actively developing ways to embrace this technology to help both staff and students learn how to use it safely, appropriately and effectively,” LCS said in a statement. “While this work is still in progress, we look forward to sharing more as our efforts continue to take shape.”
Bedford County Public Schools said although the division doesn’t currently have a formal AI policy, the Information Technology and Instructional Technology departments worked together last year to provide teachers with AI guidelines and “best practices on responsible classroom use, emphasizing and ensuring AI supports, not replaces, teaching and critical thinking.”
“Teachers must provide context, feedback and humanity,” one of BCPS’s AI guiding principles said. “AI should not overpower the critical thinking, judgment or morality of the student.”
The BCPS school board discussed AI at its August meeting, and Deputy Superintendent Karen Woodford said students should be told not just about the negatives of AI.
“Is what you’re getting accurate?” Woodford said.
She said students should be aware of what AI can do, but also how to problem-solve and use it correctly.
“We’re not going to be able to keep our kids from AI,” Woodford said. “We’re not going to be able to keep them from computers. So, I feel like a better way is to try to teach them the responsibility of that and the responsibility of being online.”
Campbell County Public Schools launched division-wide AI guidelines this fall, which CCPS Director of Instructional Technology Marc Hudson presented at the school board’s August meeting.
Hudson said CCPS knows students already are using AI personally.
“But we want to be able to use and incorporate this into our digital citizenship,” he said. “Show them the correct ways to use it, the safety, the concerns with that.”
He said CCPS sees safe and appropriate use for students as brainstorming, tutoring, creating study guides and practicing skills. It should be teacher-guided, developmentally appropriate and properly cited when contributing to academic work.
Prohibited use for students includes submitting AI-generated work as their own, inputting personal, sensitive or educational data into non-approved AI tools and generating inappropriate, biased or misleading content.
“It’s here, and it’s helpful,” Hudson said. “We want to see it as a way to help kids make decisions critically.”
CCPS Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Amy Hale said CCPS wants to make sure its AI guidelines are accurate and that they meet the division’s needs.
“We may need to adjust them as we move along too,” Hale said.
Hudson also presented information on the division’s decision to use the AI platform MagicSchool this school year.
He said CCPS will train staff on the program through September with hopes to make it available for students in the spring.
“I think the teachers need to know first and feel comfortable with it because there are teachers that are scared of it and don’t trust it and don’t want to use it,” said Karen Tanner, Sunburst District representative on the county school board.
Hale said an advantage of students using MagicSchool instead of ChatGPT is it doesn’t feed language models and is not “wide open.”
“For the safety purposes, we need our students starting here first,” Hale said.
Hudson said learning about AI prepares students for the future.
“This is something that’s going to be here, it’s something that’s going to be needed,” he said. “It’s initiatives that will be part of their lives going forward without a doubt.”
© 2025 The News & Advance, Lynchburg, Va. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
