As supervisor of the digital learning experience at Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS), Eric Haines sees himself, in part, as a futurist. “What are our students entering the workforce in the next year, three years, five years going to need to be successful?” Haines says.
One thing students will need, Haines continues, is the ability to harness artificial intelligence (AI) as it becomes more prevalent in the workplace. “There isn’t a field that it doesn’t touch, and we’re committed to making sure that students are prepared for whatever career they head into,” he says.
Some worry, however, that the rapid adoption of AI could allow students to bypass the productive struggle needed to build basic competencies. Indeed, in a 2025 health advisory, the American Psychological Association (APA) warned that “students must not become overly dependent on AI, which could impede developing their own knowledge and skills.”
At the same time, the APA cites research suggesting that AI’s organizational, summarization and problem-solving features can help students understand and retain key concepts. “AI promotes growth through advanced questioning techniques that can stimulate critical thinking, scaffolding that provides step-by-step guidance and adaptive learning that delivers personalized feedback,” the advisory reads.
Haines acknowledges that tension. “There’s a difference between having it do some of the work for you and having it replace all of the thinking,” he says. “We want to encourage the use of AI as a tool that helps you learn, as opposed to doing it all for you. You want to make sure that students are using it in a proper and appropriate way.”
AI tools used by students generally fall into three categories:
- Generative AI: ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot can support brainstorming, research, and writing.
- AI tutoring and study tools: Tools like AskSia, Khanmigo and NotebookLM can help students review course materials, providing explanations, answering questions and offering feedback.
- Writing and language tools: Grammarly and other AI writing assistants can help users improve their grammar, vocabulary and writing.
About half of teens (51%) surveyed by the Pew Research Center last fall said chatbots were at least somewhat helpful for completing schoolwork, while only 3% said they were of little to no help. More than half of respondents (54%) said they used chatbots for help with schoolwork, with 10% reporting that they used AI for most or all of their assignments. More specifically, 40% said they used AI to research topics and solve math problems, while 35% said they used it to edit their writing.
One big challenge for parents, Haines says, is keeping up with rapidly changing AI tools and their new features. The APA also notes that parents often lack the time or capacity to learn about AI’s promises and pitfalls.
FCPS offers resources for families on its fcps.org/AI page, including these five tips from Common Sense Media:
- Talk about the benefits and risks of using AI. For example, remind your child that AI tools are programs, not people.
- Try out AI tools together. This can help parents evaluate whether they are age-appropriate.
- Talk about biases in tech. Encourage your child to think critically about information provided by AI and to verify answers using trustworthy sources.
- Have conversations about plagiarism and cheating. Explain to your child that taking credit for AI-generated work could violate academic integrity rules.
- Ask your child’s teachers and school for support.
Haines also recommends that parents look for signs that their children’s work reflects their own thinking. “If you have a 10-year-old and they’re starting to produce writing that looks like they have a Ph.D.,” he says, “most parents get like, ‘That’s not how you were writing two weeks ago.’”
He adds that, in light of AI, teachers have been rethinking how they assess student learning to promote more authentic work, including by connecting assignments to students’ own experiences. “Let’s ask some questions that maybe AI isn’t going to know,” the district administrator says. “Make it personal instead of writing about something that’s very general and vague. It could be, ‘Write about the summer vacation that you took’ — something that AI can’t really do for you.”
Additionally, FCPS plans to roll out its new “AI scales.” The scales will allow teachers to clearly communicate how much AI use is permitted on a given assignment while giving students a way to explain how they used it. For instance, Haines says, a student might write, “I used it to get some feedback, but it didn’t write the whole paper — it just gave me some ideas.”
These scales come on the heels of guidance from the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), which followed Governor Wes Moore’s approval in May of Maryland Senate Bill 720, the Artificial Intelligence Ready Schools Act.
The landmark law also brings together educators, technology specialists and other stakeholders to develop recommendations for ethical AI use in schools. As the APA stressed, understanding AI’s wide-ranging implications will require collaboration among parents and experts in fields such as computer science, ethics and neuroscience.
The advisory also called for “rigorous scientific investigation,” including longitudinal studies of the same individuals over an extended period, studies that identify causal relationships and long-term effects and studies of children from diverse communities.
One potential area of study is whether students’ AI use has long-term effects on their academic integrity or broader ethical behavior. More than half (59%) of teens surveyed by Pew said using AI to cheat happens at least somewhat often at school, with about a third (34%) saying it happens extremely or very often. Previous research has linked academic cheating to dishonesty later in life, raising questions about whether AI-assisted cheating could have similar consequences.
The APA advises parents to “model healthy behavior and critical thinking for adolescents.”
“Parents and caregivers play a vital role in guiding and protecting adolescents as they navigate AI technologies,” the advisory reads.
“AI is a really helpful tool. It can help students develop essential skills needed for college and career success, but we also know it comes with risks,” Haines says. “You want to have adequate safeguards in place. I would again recommend that parents stay involved and continue to use their human judgment.”
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