AI Detectors and the Risk of FERPA Violations by Educators

Many teachers are routinely using online AI detectors to check whether students have improperly relied on generative artificial intelligence output for school-related assignments. At first glance, this may seem to be fine (aside from issues regarding how well these tools actually detect AI content). Depending on the situation, however, you could be running into a trap if you are a teacher and use an AI detector in the wrong way.

That trap relates to FERPA, the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which limits what schools can do with their students’ personal information. Sharing certain types of information outside of the school setting can trigger a FERPA violation, which in turn can trigger a complaint to your state’s licensing entity. If you have been accused of violating a student’s privacy rights, the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team is here to defend you. Call us at 888.535.3686, or fill out our online contact form so we can schedule a confidential consultation to discuss your case.

FERPA Protects Student Privacy

FERPA specifically protects the confidentiality of students’ personally identifiable information (PII). Schools are limited in how they can use and disclose student PII, particularly to outside parties. In most cases, parents must provide written consent before a school can disclose their child’s PII to an outside party. There are limited exceptions, however – schools can disclose PII to certain contractors, consultants, volunteers, and others to whom the school outsources services or functions.

Those third parties need to meet certain criteria. They must provide a service or function that the school would normally use an employee for; they must operate under the school’s direct control; the third party must only use the PII for the limited purposes of the disclosure; and there must be a legitimate educational interest in the student PII that is shared.

AI Detection Tools May Not Meet FERPA Requirements

There are many AI detection tools that are freely available online, of various degrees of quality and accuracy. Often, there is no login or registration required, and very little disclosure about how the information shared with the AI detection tool is used. A teacher who copies and pastes student-generated content into an AI detector thus risks violating FERPA if that content discloses PII about that student. Teachers need to take care when using online AI detectors not to share any information with the detector that could reveal the identity of the student whose work the AI detector is reviewing. This is less of a concern in cases where the AI detector is one that the school or school district has an agreement with, because these agreements will typically include privacy protections that will satisfy FERPA.

In many cases, this FERPA violation may never be brought to light. But in situations where a teacher has accused a student of submitting AI-generated content in place of the student’s own work product, parents may begin to ask questions about how the teacher decided their child’s content was AI-generated.

That’s when a teacher’s disclosure that they used an online AI detector to review the student’s work product may result in a complaint that by doing so, the teacher violated the student’s (and the parents’) FERPA rights.

Other Uses of AI That Can Lead to FERPA Violations

There are other uses of AI by teachers that can lead to FERPA violations. Using an online “chatbot” to help analyze information about a student or a class or to develop a lesson plan tailored to the needs of a specific set of students can violate those students’ privacy rights if the information that the information shares with the chatbot includes PII about any of the students. Even if the information does not include the students’ names, if it is enough to be able to identify one or more specific students the teacher may have committed a FERPA violation.

The LLF National Law Firm Can Defend Your Teaching License in FERPA Cases

It is by no means clear that every use of an AI detection tool or a chatbot by a teacher will violate FERPA. It depends on the tool that was used and the amount and type of student information that was disclosed by the teacher. But even when you were in the right, having to deal with a complaint to your state licensing board that you violated a student’s privacy rights by doing so can be stressful and complicated to defend against.

That is where the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team can help. Our attorneys stay current with what’s happening with respect to artificial intelligence and education law. We also regularly defend teachers and other professional license holders across the country who have been accused of all types of misconduct. As a result, we know the laws, regulations, rules, and procedures that apply in professional misconduct cases, and are ready to use that experience to help defend your license and your future.

Call the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team today at 888.535.3686, or submit our online contact form so we can schedule a confidential consultation to learn more about your situation. We’ll explain the ways we can help.