Key takeaways

• A 2025 Gallup survey found that 60% of K-12 teachers used AI tools during the 2024-2025 school year, yet only 19% work in schools with an AI policy

• Build your district AI strategy across 12-24 months, starting with infrastructure assessment and stakeholder education before drafting policy

• Despite many districts offering AI training, 68% of teachers report not engaging in institution-provided AI training, suggesting a gap between intent and implementation

• Suburban and low-poverty districts are about twice as likely to provide AI training compared to urban and high-poverty districts

• Clear success metrics must be established before implementation, measuring student outcomes, teacher time savings, and equity of access

You know your teachers are using AI. Some are experimenting quietly. Others are asking for guidance. A few are concerned about students cheating. Meanwhile, your board wants to know what the district's plan is, and you're trying to figure out what's actually working across your schools in real time.

Here's how to build a district AI strategy grounded in what early adopter districts have learned and what current evidence suggests separates “pilot fatigue” from measurable impact.

Assess your infrastructure first

Before you evaluate a single AI tool or write any policy, you need to know where your district actually stands right now. Effective implementation requires district-level readiness assessment before individual teacher professional development begins. This isn't about technology readiness alone. It's about understanding 4 critical areas:

1. Technical infrastructure: Network capacity, device capabilities, and data systems

2. Human capacity: Teacher AI literacy, administrator understanding, and community readiness

3. Policy infrastructure: Existing technology policies, data privacy guidelines, and acceptable use frameworks

4. Financial readiness: Budget allocation, sustainability planning, and ROI measurement

For example, imagine a large district in Colorado beginning its readiness assessment and discovering that teachers were using seven different AI tools across buildings, with no visibility into student data or usage patterns. Understanding the scope of what's already in use should happen before you spend another dollar on new technology.

Create a simple “AI inventory” (tools in use, who uses them, what data they touch, and whether they’re approved). This becomes your starting point for privacy review, procurement decisions, and staff guidance. 

Start these conversations with your technology team about network capacity, devices, and data systems. Then assess human capacity, policy infrastructure, and financial readiness using the frameworks above.

Get stakeholder buy-in before drafting policy

This is where most districts make their biggest mistake with their AI strategy for schools. They rush to create an AI policy because boards are asking for one, parents are concerned, or neighboring districts just released theirs. But policy without understanding doesn't work.

Engage stakeholders early and continuously, beginning before and continuing throughout formal policy development. Successful districts educate staff about AI extensively before beginning policy drafting. Here's how to approach each stakeholder group:

• Start with teachers through voluntary pilot programs and action research teams. For example, consider a third-grade teacher facing resistance from her team about AI tools.
  She might spend three months using SchoolAI’s Spaces in her own classroom first, documenting exactly what changed: her struggling readers got immediate pronunciation feedback, her advanced students explored deeper questions independently, and she had more protected minutes for small group instruction. By the time she shares results with colleagues, several other teachers may volunteer for the next pilot cycle.

• Position AI as a support tool that enhances, not replaces, educator practice. Communicate clearly to principals and instructional coaches about your pedagogical goals. Ask: What are teachers already using successfully? Where are they struggling with current tools? What concerns are parents and students raising?

• Reach parents and community through multiple channels, including town halls, advisory boards representing diverse perspectives, and existing school committees, with evening sessions and childcare for accessibility. Direct families to independent resources like the Parents Playbook to build credibility and address concerns proactively.

• Invest in board development through programs like NSBA AI Smart to prepare board members to make informed strategic decisions.

The gap between training offered and teacher engagement tells you everything. When districts report offering AI training, yet most teachers don't engage, it suggests fundamental failures in implementation design or relevance rather than teacher indifference.

Board-facing tip: Before you draft policy language, share a one-page “AI intent statement” (what you will use AI for, what you will not use it for, and how you will protect privacy and equity). It reduces fear, speeds alignment, and makes policy review smoother.

Run small teacher pilots to find what works

Pilots aren't about proving AI works. They're about discovering what works for your district, with your teachers, serving your students. A 2026 Brookings framework organizes action into three pillars: Prosper, Prepare, Protect, which maps well to district pilot design. Use AI only when it strengthens learning, builds AI literacy, and safeguards privacy/safety/well-being.

Start your pilot with 15-30 volunteer teachers across different grade levels and different schools. Make sure you're including teachers from your highest-need schools, not just your most tech-savvy buildings. 

According to CRPE research, suburban and low-poverty districts are currently about twice as likely to provide AI training as urban or high-poverty districts. Don't let that pattern take root in your system.

Give pilot teachers clear parameters with specific tools to try. For example, imagine a high school English teacher joining his district's pilot program and testing specific tools over six weeks: a writing feedback tool for essay drafts, a mind map tool for pre-writing brainstorming, and a document generator for differentiated reading passages. 

He might track revision quality, time spent on feedback, and student engagement rates. By week 4, he could find that students were revising essays more frequently than in previous years, and he was spending significantly less time per class period on initial feedback rounds.

This specificity, exactly what changed in student learning outcomes and what saved teacher time, is what you're looking for.

Prevent equity gaps from day one

If you wait to think about equity until you're scaling, you've already created gaps that will be hard to close.

The U.S. Department of Education guidance confirms that federal formula and discretionary grant funds can support AI integration when used responsibly and focused on measurable outcomes. The question is how you allocate those resources.

Data privacy should serve as the primary gating factor for any adoption decision. All tools must comply with FERPA and COPPA requirements. Also include your state privacy requirements, district vendor agreements, and a clear “what data can/can’t be entered into AI” rule for staff and students.  That's the kind of leadership that builds trust with families and protects students while still moving forward thoughtfully.

Track access patterns across demographic groups from the start. If your pilot shows 78% engagement at your suburban middle school but only 34% at your Title I elementary building, you know you have an access problem to solve before scaling, not after.

Track 4 metrics that show real impact

Your board doesn't want to hear about AI adoption rates. They want to know if students are learning more, if teachers have more time to work directly with kids, and if the investment is worth it.

Districts should establish clear questions they need to answer before identifying what data to collect: How will we measure impact on student learning outcomes and engagement? Do AI-enhanced programs better prepare students for college and careers? Are we seeing results across all student populations?

Track these 4 categories from implementation start, establishing baseline data before rolling out AI tools:

1. Student outcomes: Academic performance on existing assessments tracked through pre/post comparison, engagement rates with AI tools, and student-reported learning confidence

2. Operational efficiency: Teacher time allocation before and after AI implementation, professional development participation rates, and adoption patterns across buildings

3. Equity indicators: Access rates across demographic groups, participation by student subpopulations, and resource allocation equity

4. Cost-effectiveness: Total investment versus measurable impacts on student learning and district operations

Districts should establish these metric categories before implementation begins to ensure valid, reliable data collection. If you can’t measure baseline conditions, you can’t credibly claim impact.

Start your district AI strategy this week

Building a comprehensive district AI strategy takes 12-24 months. But you can start this week by taking 2 concrete actions.

First, assemble a small team to conduct your readiness assessment. Get your CTO, a few principals from diverse schools, an instructional coach, and a union representative in a room. Ask them: What's already happening with AI in our district? What do we need to know about our infrastructure, people, policies, and budget before moving forward?

Second, identify 15-20 volunteer teachers willing to participate in a structured pilot. Make sure you're including teachers from your highest-need schools. Give them clear goals: test specific tools for specific instructional challenges and report back on what works and what doesn't.

Explore SchoolAI to see how teacher-controlled AI can support your district's implementation in ways that actually improve student learning while supporting your teachers.