Topic Hub: AI in School Safety

Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the school safety landscape. Schools are adopting AI-powered tools for video surveillance, threat detection, student monitoring, and other security applications, while at the same time confronting new risks involving deepfakes, cyberbullying, student well-being, privacy, and the misuse of generative AI.

This topic hub brings together School Security Leadership reporting, research, guidance, and other resources examining how AI is being used in school safety, emerging risks and concerns, and the policies and practices surrounding its use. It is regularly updated with the latest news, research, and resources related to AI and school safety.

AI-Powered School Safety Technology

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being incorporated into technologies schools use for safety and security. AI-enabled tools can analyze large amounts of information or activity and alert school personnel to events, behaviors, or patterns that may warrant attention.

Applications include video analytics that can identify weapons, fights, or other activity, behavioral analysis and monitoring tools designed to identify potential safety or student well-being concerns, and AI capabilities incorporated into access control, emergency response, and other security systems.

AI Video Surveillance and Analytics

AI-powered video analytics are expanding what schools can do with existing security camera systems. Rather than relying solely on someone to continuously monitor camera feeds or reviewing footage after an incident, some systems can analyze video in real time and alert designated personnel when they detect specific objects or activity.

Applications can include weapons detection, fight detection, unusual activity, and other predefined events. Capabilities and accuracy vary by system, and schools also need to consider how alerts are verified and what happens after an alert is generated.

Related SSL Coverage:

• How Video Surveillance Is Evolving in K-12 Schools: A look at how AI and video analytics are expanding the role of school security cameras, including real-time detection, AI gun detection, false positives, human verification, privacy, and policy.
• Survey Finds Schools Prioritizing Vape Detection, AI-Enabled Camera Monitoring: Survey findings on school safety technology priorities, including the use of AI-enabled camera monitoring to detect potential threats or fights.

AI Behavioral Analysis and Monitoring

AI is also being used to analyze behavior, communications, digital activity, and other information for patterns that could indicate a potential safety or student well-being concern. Depending on the system, alerts may be generated when certain behaviors, changes, or risk indicators are identified.

These tools can provide additional information to school personnel, but AI-generated alerts do not provide the full context needed to assess an individual's behavior or level of risk. How alerts are reviewed, who receives them, what information is collected, and how schools respond are important considerations when these systems are used. A behavioral threat assessment goes further, bringing together additional context, professional judgment, and input from a multidisciplinary team.

Latest News & Research:

• Uvalde School Board Seeks More Staff Training on AI Safety Program: Uvalde school officials discussed additional staff training for an AI-powered student safety program that analyzes student behavior and other information to identify potential concerns.
• AI as an Extra Set of Eyes: Using AI Observation and Analytics to Support Student Success: An overview of how AI-powered observation and analytics tools are being used to identify behavioral patterns and provide educators with additional information about student engagement and well-being.

Other AI-Enabled School Security Applications

AI capabilities are also being incorporated into other safety and security technologies, including license plate recognition, digital threat monitoring, access control, and emergency response systems. As these technologies evolve, schools are considering how individual tools fit into existing security practices and how the information they generate is used.

Additional Resource:

• AI-Enabled School Safety: Solutions, Use Cases, and Real-World Impact: A resource examining AI applications in school safety and examples of how the technology is being used in K-12 environments.

Evaluating and Governing AI in Schools

As AI becomes more common in school safety and other K-12 technologies, districts are also navigating questions about how these tools are evaluated, purchased, and governed. AI capabilities may be built into products schools already use or added as new features, making it important for district leaders to understand what a system does, what information it collects, and how that information is used.

Privacy and data governance are central to those discussions. Depending on the technology, AI systems may analyze video, student behavior, communications, online activity, or other potentially sensitive information. Districts may need to consider what data is collected, where it is stored, how long it is retained, who can access it, whether it is shared with third parties, and how families and staff are informed about its use.

Accuracy and human oversight are also important considerations. AI-generated alerts and recommendations can provide additional information to school personnel, but they can also produce false positives or miss important context. Schools need clear processes for determining who reviews AI-generated information and how it factors into decisions involving students or school safety.

AI Procurement and Product Evaluation

The rapid growth of AI products marketed to schools can make it difficult for districts to determine which tools are appropriate for their needs. Beyond cost and functionality, evaluation may include questions about privacy protections, data ownership, cybersecurity, accuracy, vendor claims, system limitations, and how AI features interact with existing school technology.

Latest News & Research:

• Schools Spend Billions on AI, but Struggle to Figure Out What's Worth Buying: An examination of the challenges districts face as they evaluate a rapidly growing number of AI products, including questions around effectiveness, privacy, cost, and vendor claims.
• California School Board Says It Unknowingly Approved $1.9 Million in AI Surveillance Cameras: A California district's experience raises questions about transparency and oversight when AI capabilities are included in school security technology purchases.

Privacy, Data, and Oversight

AI use in schools can raise questions about how much information is being collected about students and staff and what happens to that information after it is collected. Policies around access, retention, sharing, auditing, and human review can help establish how AI-generated data and alerts are handled.

Related SSL Coverage:

• ALPRs in Schools: What K-12 Leaders Should Consider Before Adoption: A look at the privacy, data access, retention, sharing, auditing, and oversight questions districts should consider when using license plate recognition technology.

Developing AI Policies

School districts are also developing policies to establish how AI can be used by students and staff, which tools are permitted, what information can be entered into AI systems, and when human review is required. Policies may also address privacy, transparency, academic use, prohibited uses, and consequences for misuse.

As AI capabilities continue to change, districts may need to revisit these policies and existing technology, privacy, student conduct, and school safety policies to determine whether they adequately address new uses and risks.

Latest News & Research:

• School Districts Grapple With AI Policies: A look at how school districts are developing policies and guidance around artificial intelligence as they navigate questions about appropriate use, privacy, academic integrity, and the rapidly changing capabilities of AI tools.

AI-Generated Threats and Student Safety

As generative AI becomes more accessible, schools are confronting new forms of misuse that can affect student safety and well-being. AI can be used to impersonate, harass, embarrass, or target students and staff, while also making it easier to create and spread harmful or threatening content.

These capabilities can also complicate how schools respond to incidents, particularly when they need to determine whether content is authentic, who created it, and whether it represents a credible threat.

Deepfakes and AI-Generated Explicit Content

AI-generated explicit images can cause real harm even when the image itself is fabricated. For schools, these incidents can involve overlapping concerns related to bullying and harassment, student mental health, school discipline, and potentially criminal conduct.

Latest News & Research:

• Creating Nude Deepfakes Is Rampant Among Young People — and AI Safety Education Is Lacking: Research examining young people's exposure to and creation of AI-generated explicit content also found gaps in the AI safety guidance students receive at school.

AI, Social Media, and Online Harms

Generative AI can also amplify existing concerns around social media, cyberbullying, harassment, and online threats. Students can use AI tools to create convincing fake images, audio, video, or messages and distribute that content quickly through social media and other digital platforms.

Even fabricated content can cause significant harm when it targets a student or staff member or spreads rapidly through a school community. AI-generated content can also make it more difficult for schools to determine who created it and how to respond.

These issues are prompting schools to consider whether existing policies around bullying, harassment, threats, social media, and acceptable technology use adequately address AI-generated content and how students are using it online.

Related SSL Coverage:

• ‘Cat in the Hat’ TikTok Trend: How School Safety Leaders Are Responding: AI-generated threatening posts are prompting school investigations, disciplinary action, and law enforcement response. NCSSD members share what their districts are seeing and how they are responding.

Latest News & Research:

• Knox County Schools Considers Social Media Ban, AI Restrictions for Students: A Tennessee school district considered new restrictions on student social media and AI use as part of a broader discussion about technology, student behavior, and safety.
• Tennessee Lawmakers Push for Teacher Misconduct Reforms After Nashville Firing: A case involving AI-generated content and social media prompted discussion among Tennessee lawmakers about school policies and potential changes to state law.

AI, Student Well-Being, and Mental Health

The growing role of AI in students' daily lives is also raising questions about its potential effects on mental health and well-being. Students may interact with AI through schoolwork, social media, search tools, chatbots, and other platforms, sometimes without fully understanding how those systems work or the limitations of the information and responses they provide.

Concerns can include exposure to harmful or inappropriate content, reliance on AI for emotional support or advice, feelings of loneliness or isolation, and the effects of AI-generated content on students who are targeted by harassment or bullying.

For schools, these issues overlap with existing efforts around student mental health, digital wellness, bullying prevention, and online safety. As research continues to develop, understanding how students are using and interacting with AI can help schools identify where additional education, support, or safeguards may be needed.

Latest Research & Resources:

• Common Sense Media Census: AI Use by Tweens and Teens (2026): A national survey of more than 1,200 children ages 9 to 17 examines how young people are using AI, including for health advice, emotional support, schoolwork, and entertainment. The research also explores AI dependency, loneliness, exposure to inappropriate content, and the amount of AI safety guidance children receive from schools and families.

AI Literacy and Responsible Use

As students encounter AI more frequently at school and in their everyday lives, AI literacy is becoming another component of digital safety. Understanding how AI systems work, where they can be inaccurate or misleading, and what information should not be shared with them can help students use these tools more safely and responsibly.

Schools are beginning to incorporate AI literacy into instruction, including teaching students to question AI-generated information, recognize manipulated or misleading content, understand privacy and data concerns, and consider the consequences of using AI to create or share harmful content.

AI literacy can also help address some of the risks discussed throughout this hub. Students who better understand the limitations and potential misuse of AI may be better equipped to recognize deepfakes, protect personal information, evaluate AI-generated content, and make informed decisions about how they interact with AI tools.

Latest Research & Resources:

• OECD PISA Research Links Frequent AI Use to Lower Performance, While Highlighting Benefits of AI Literacy: New international PISA data found that students who reported frequently using AI for tasks such as drafting assignments, preliminary research, and summarizing readings tended to score lower than students who used it less frequently. However, the findings varied based on how AI was used. Students who used AI about once or twice a week tended to outperform both more frequent users and those who rarely or never used it, while daily AI users performed better when they were regularly asked in school to evaluate AI-generated information.
• Teens in the AI Era: Schoolwork and Skills That Matter: A 2026 Common Sense Media survey of more than 1,000 U.S. teens found 70% use AI for schoolwork, while only 27% said a teacher had ever talked with them about how to use AI safely. The research also examines how students use AI, critical thinking, and the skills teens believe will remain important in an AI-driven world.
• Schools Are Starting to Teach AI Literacy. For Many, That Means Helping Kids See Chatbots' Flaws: A look at how schools are beginning to teach AI literacy by helping students understand how AI works, recognize inaccurate information, question AI-generated responses, and consider privacy and ethical concerns.
• Students From All 50 States Produce National Framework for AI in America's Schools: A student-developed framework for responsible AI use in K-12 schools addresses AI literacy, student privacy, transparency, human review, and limits on using AI for decisions involving areas such as discipline and grading.

AI Policies and Restrictions in Schools

States and school districts are taking different approaches to student and staff use of artificial intelligence. Some are developing guidelines for responsible use, while others have adopted restrictions or moratoriums on certain AI tools or uses.

Policies can vary considerably in scope. Some establish expectations around privacy, academic integrity, human oversight, and approved AI tools, while others limit AI use based on student age or prohibit particular applications. States are also beginning to provide model policies and guidance to help districts establish their own rules.

Because AI technology and its use in schools continue to evolve, policies are also likely to change. This section tracks notable state and district actions involving AI use in K-12 schools.

Latest Policy Developments:

• NYC Schools Ban AI Use Through Eighth Grade: New York City adopted a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI tools for elementary and middle school students, while allowing more limited AI use and AI literacy efforts at the high school level.
• LAUSD Adopts Moratorium on Student AI Use: Los Angeles Unified moved to restrict student use of generative AI as the district reevaluates the role of AI and other technology in schools.
• Florida Moves to Regulate AI From Pre-K Through Higher Education: Florida education officials are developing statewide approaches to the use of artificial intelligence across education.