Next school year could be the one when AI starts strengthening student outcomes, or the one when school systems bury themselves under a fresh round of breathless pilots. The difference will not be the tools selected, but how leaders approach the moment.
Washington just sent a signal: On April 13, the U.S. Department of Education finalized a supplemental rule that gives priority to AI implementation efforts for discretionary federal grants. That will tempt some districts and states to speed up adoption. But there’s real risk in that: fragmentation, lost focus on big goals and even bigger challenges. The moment, instead, calls for stronger vision to drive impact, rather than rushed activity confused for productivity.
This past school year has largely been about the adults: learning the tools, testing the claims, figuring out where AI helps and where it misfires. Next school year will be about something harder: whether any of that adult learning actually changes outcomes for kids. That is the essential pivot. It is recognizing that from a systems perspective, AI is not another ed-tech purchase. It is an organizational competency that has to be built, governed and strengthened over time.
So take a breath. Here are the five moves leaders should make before the first bell rings this fall.
First, start with the problem, not the product.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has shown what that looks like. Under Superintendent Crystal Hill’s leadership, the district built a serious mechanism for listening to students, families, staff and community voices. It then used that input to shape policy, professional learning and its broader AI direction. It’s a powerful example of how engagement around big issues first can be a powerful place to begin transformative work that leverages AI rather than being led by it.
Second, break the “triple veto.”
Across the country, promising AI work faces what we refer to as the “triple veto”: IT departments raise valid security concerns, legal departments object because of privacy, and academics want to pause because no one is sure how a given AI tool will impact instruction priorities. In nearly every case, these concerns are reasonable and a product of good people doing their jobs. And yet, together, they foment paralysis.
The solution for leaders is to have one operating structure with clear decision rights, risk tiers, timelines and one named owner for every pilot. Effective governance drives effective decisions rather than delays. In the Dallas Independent School District, strong governance systems are the foundation upon which AI-powered innovation can now be effectively scaled. Orange County Public Schools in Florida is also putting strong technical foundations under CIO leadership to use in moving from scattered interest to real guardrails and policy work.
Third, turn adult learning into student impact.
If this past school year was about adults figuring out how to adapt systems and approaches to AI, then next school year has to be about students actually experiencing something better because of the work the adults did. The bridge leaders must build is moving from leadership and staff development to coherent classroom expectations and implementation, transparent learning agendas and clear guardrails for turning off tools that are not living up to their hype. For students, this school year has to focus on their involvement, their voice, and helping them navigate the ethical considerations ahead for their generation.
Ector County ISD in Texas understood that sequence: Leaders spent a full year building AI literacy from principals to the school board and across the leadership team so the system would be ready to expand that work more broadly. Similarly, Westminster School District in California has fully embedded AI literacy into existing professional learning communities to shape the very work that impacts student learning. Adult learning was never the final destination in both cases, but the predicate to future student impact.
Fourth, put teachers and students inside the oversight process.
Closed-door AI governance will fail. Public transparency should be routine, not optional.
Delaware, under Secretary Cindy Marten’s leadership, is taking steps to show what that can look like. First, state leaders are developing an AI assurance lab to test tools, gather teacher feedback, surface early concerns and help districts evaluate products on an ongoing basis. This systemic oversight loop ensures educators, students and communities not only have insight into how AI is being used, but participate in the stress-testing and validation process. Adaptive, forward-leaning public infrastructure like assurance labs are responsive to both the unique challenges and opportunities presented by AI.
Closed-door AI governance will fail. Public transparency should be routine, not optional.
Fifth, create capacity by stopping something else.
To be strategic, AI adoption cannot be simply additive. If implementation is just layering new efforts on top of every existing committee, report, contract and initiative, there will be more activity, but precious little actual improvement.
The smarter move is to embrace strategic abandonment: Cut the shelfware, consolidate the redundant work, automate the low-value tasks and redirect time and money toward the uses that matter most. Because if nothing stops, nothing scales. Start with questions like: Are these tools actually delivering on vendor promises? Are we actually seeing the return we need for this investment?
The school year ahead will be shaped by leaders who are focused on aligning a clear vision with moving the right things moving forward: naming the problem, breaking the bottlenecks, building on adult preparation, and bridging the work to effective implementation for and with students. AI cannot be a side initiative, nor an end to itself. Instead, it is a test of whether leaders can keep learning as fast as technology changes.
Dr. Julia Rafal-Baer is the co-founder and CEO of ILO Group, a women-owned education and policy strategy firm, and the founder of Women Leading Ed, a national nonprofit network for women in education leadership. She is also a member of the National Assessment Governing Board.
Dr. Scott Muri served as a superintendent for 10 years at two large Texas school districts (Spring Branch ISD and Ector County ISD) and is now the CEO of innovations in leadership and superintendent in residence at the policy firm ILO Group.
