Artificial Intelligence Use | School Psychology Handbook

Purpose and Scope

This policy outlines expectations for the ethical, appropriate, and legally compliant use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools by both students and faculty/staff within the school psychology training program. These expectations apply across all domains of training, including academic coursework, applied field experiences (practica and internships), and research. As a school psychology student, you will take courses from faculty and staff outside of our program. Be sure to follow their guidance on AI use in their courses as it may vary from our own.

The program acknowledges the educational value of artificial intelligence tools – specifically Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini for increasing accessibility, strengthening training effectiveness, and creating realistic practice scenarios. Nevertheless, AI implementation must also align with the core professional principles of school psychology, while adhering to ethical and legal requirements, especially concerning issues of confidentiality, data protection, and scholarly integrity. AI resources are designed to support and enhance, rather than substitute for, human academic composition, clinical judgment, and research processes.

Definition of AI: “AI is a branch of computer science dedicated to developing intelligent entities capable of reasoning, learning, and operating independently… Generative AI is a branch of artificial intelligence specializing in creating novel content, including text, images, audio, and video. It analyzes extensive datasets provided by researchers, enabling the AI to discern patterns and relationships within the data to produce new, original material” (Wu et al., 2025, p. 1).

Guiding Principles: Ethical and Legal Considerations

The school psychology training program's approach to AI is grounded in the National Association of School Psychologist (NASP, 2020) Principles for Professional Ethics and the American Psychology Association (APA, 2017) Ethical Principles, emphasizing beneficence and nonmaleficence, fidelity and responsibility, integrity, justice, and respect for people's rights and dignity.

Transparency and Informed Consent
- Disclosure of AI Use: AI use in settings where psychological services or training activities are offered should be disclosed to relevant parties (e.g., other providers, individuals receiving direct care, third parties like courts, supervisors) in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner appropriate to the audience. This includes both subtle uses (e.g., predictive text for notes) and more substantial uses (e.g., AI determining treatment approach) (APA, 2025).
- Student Disclosure: Students are responsible for the content of all academic, clinical, and research work they submit. Any work supported by AI must be critically reviewed, edited, and appropriately attributed (Lou, 2024).
- Client Consent: When AI tools are used in relation to client care, psychologists have an ethical obligation to obtain informed consent by clearly communicating the purpose, application, and potential benefits and risks of AI tools. Clients must be informed of AI's role, limitations, and their right to opt out of AI-driven interventions, with alternative options provided (APA, 2025).
Data Privacy and Security (HIPAA/FERPA Compliance)
- Prohibition of Sensitive Data Input: Under no circumstances should students or faculty enter information about real clients or personally identifiable information (PII) into AI tools that are not institutionally approved and specifically designed and contracted for secure data handling (e.g., with a Business Associate Agreement for HIPAA; Farmer et al., 2024). Most publicly available AI tools are not HIPAA- or FERPA-compliant, and their use to process clinical or educational information constitutes a serious breach of ethical and legal standards.
- Confidentiality Safeguards: Students may not use AI tools to draft psychological reports, treatment plans, clinical notes, or emails involving client material without consent from clients and supervisors. This also applies to student data perceived as "non-identifiable," as AI may still be able to infer identity (Farmer et al., 2024).
- System Oversight: The program will review AI tools for compliance with relevant data privacy and security laws and regulations. Students and faculty should be knowledgeable about how data is used, stored, and shared by any AI tool they utilize.
Mitigating Bias and Promoting Equity
- Awareness of Bias: Students and faculty must be aware that AI is not impervious to bias and can perpetuate harmful stereotypes (e.g., race, gender, age) and provide biased or inaccurate information. AI models are trained on large datasets that may be entrenched with historical and societal biases (Lockwood and Brown, 2025).
- Ethical Obligation: School psychologists hold an ethical obligation to engage in equitable practices for diverse student populations. Programs must include specific instruction and caveats for students regarding potential AI biases.
- Vetting AI Tools: When considering AI tools, evaluate them for potential biases that could worsen disparities in mental health or educational outcomes. Review how tools were normed and the diversity of their training data. Check output for bias taking a similar approach to assessing for disproportional impact of other education decisions.
- Culturally Responsive Practices: Students and faculty should critically analyze AI-generated content to ensure it aligns with culturally responsive and socially just practices, considering clients’ demographic, sociocultural, and ecological contexts, and avoiding pathologizing minoritized students.
Accuracy and Misinformation Risks
- Validation and Verification: AI tools are not infallible; they are known to produce "hallucinations" (semantically correct but factually incorrect outputs), inaccurate assertions, invalid references, and formatting errors (Farmer et al., 2025).
- Critical Evaluation: Students and faculty must critically evaluate AI-generated content before applying it in academic or clinical settings. Outputs are only as good as the input and training they receive, and AI cannot assess its own accuracy.
- Responsible Use: Programs should strive to integrate tools that disclose their training data source and provide evidence of validation. If the AI is tasked beyond its programming, it may provide faulty instruction.
Human Oversight and Professional Judgment
- Augmentation, Not Replacement: AI tools should be viewed as assistive technology to augment human capabilities, not to replace the essential critical thinking, clinical judgment, and direct human interaction inherent in school psychology practice (Farmer et al., 2024).
- Learning: Overreliance on AI can prevent learning of critical skills and lead to a reduction in autonomy, decision-making capacity, and knowledge (Farmer et al., 2024). The program will require students to engage in critical thinking, fostering skepticism towards AI content, and requiring students to understand the reasoning behind AI outputs.
- Maintaining Core Competencies: Overreliance on AI tools might prevent trainees from developing essential clinical skills such as report writing, data interpretation, and case conceptualization. Students will be provided with opportunities to engage in critical thinking, discussions, and reflections, both individually and under supervision, to understand the implications of AI use.
- Supervisor Guidance: Clinical supervisors should provide opportunities for supervisees to understand how to integrate AI efficiently while ensuring clinical accuracy and the development of core skills. Additionally, clinical supervisors should model critical and responsible AI given they are competently trained.
Equitable Access
- Addressing Disparities: The school psychology program recognizes that without explicit attention to ensuring all students have access to AI tools, regardless of financial resources or disabilities, existing inequities may be exacerbated.
- Inclusive Tools: The program encourages the use of AI tools that include accessibility features for students with visual impairments or other disabilities, and faculty or university staff can provide guidance on accessing these tools (e.g., audio features, speech interpretation, image descriptions).
- Resource Provision: The program will explore ways to ensure equitable access to necessary AI tools for all students, mitigating disadvantages for those unable to afford pay-for-access models.
Preparation for Future AI Use in the Workplace
- Future-Oriented Training: The program aims to prepare graduate students to use best-practice methods for incorporating emerging technologies into future school psychology practice.
- Professional Readiness: Students and faculty should engage in conversation regarding how AI will likely impact school psychologists' careers and the importance of developing competency in these tools without losing key professional skills. Students should be able to recognize AI programs and understand their benefits and limitations as many schools may wish to integrate AI at a systems level. This includes guidance on professional development related to AI.
Monitoring and Evaluation of Impacts
- Assessing Student Learning: The school psychology program acknowledges the current lack of clear approaches to assess how AI use affects student learning and development within training programs.
- Programmatic Review: The program will develop and implement mechanisms to monitor the impact of AI on student learning and the development of core competencies. This data-driven approach will inform future revisions of this policy and program curriculum.
Evolution of Policies
- Dynamic Nature of AI: Given the rapid pace of AI advancement, this policy is understood as a dynamic document subject to continuous review and adaptation. The program commits to regular review and updates to ensure the policy remains relevant and effective.

Specific Applications and Guidelines

Faculty may have specific guidelines to AI use in their courses. If their policy on AI use is stricter (i.e., prohibits use), please comply with their standards.

General Academic Use (Coursework, Assignments)
- Permitted Uses (with Instructor Permission):
  - Outlining and structuring assignments or ideas.
  - Grammar checking and improving written expression.
  - Brainstorming ideas for various academic tasks, such as scenarios for assessment, consultation, counseling, or other intervention development or implementation.
  - Summarizing lengthy or challenging reading materials (e.g., statistical, neurological terms, journal articles, handbooks).
  - Practicing acquired skills (e.g., analyzing cases, difficult client interactions, hypothetical ethical dilemmas) and receiving instant feedback.
- Prohibited Uses:
  - Submitting AI-generated content as the student’s own original work.
  - Using AI tools during in-class assessments or exams unless explicitly approved by the instructor.
  - Generating scientific papers on its own, given the risk of plagiarism and inaccurate supporting evidence.
- Attribution: When AI tools are used to assist with academic work, students must include a brief note of disclosure indicating when and how the tools were used.
Clinical Use (Practicum, Internship)
- Prohibited Uses:
  - Inputting client-related or school-based case material without client and supervisor consent and disclosure.
  - Inputting client-related or school-based case material (identified or de-identified) into any AI tools that are not institutionally approved.
  - Using AI tools to write, revise, or summarize psychological reports, treatment plans, or clinical notes (unless with consent of supervisor).
  - Using AI tools to simulate counseling, create behavior management plans, or generate diagnostic impressions, even hypothetically, unless it is a structured educational activity involving no real client data.
  - Relying solely on AI for clinical interpretation, decision-making, or literature review, as AI outputs are limited by their source data and lack human judgment.
- Permitted Uses (with Supervisor Consultation and Approval):
  - Exploring academic content related to school psychology (e.g., reviewing intervention strategies or theoretical frameworks) without including client information.
  - Helping improve general templates or generating suggestions related to general referral concerns (e.g., identifying evidence-based reading fluency interventions), but without including specific case details.
  - Practicing clinical skills (e.g., suicide assessment, crisis prevention, therapy techniques) in AI-driven virtual reality systems that simulate scenarios without risk to actual clients.
  - Analyzing language during practice sessions (e.g., counseling, consultation) to improve microskills, provided sessions are recorded on secure platforms and feedback is AI-generated.
  - Using AI to aid in finding technology or web accessibility issues.
  - Generating self-monitoring logs or mindfulness exercises that do not involve specific client information.
Research Use
- Permitted Uses (with Research Advisor Consultation and Approval):
  - Summarizing existing literature using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) models (note that hallucinations are likely).
  - Checking grammar and outlining ideas.
  - Assisting with coding tasks for qualitative data after human review.
  - Brainstorming or generating ideas for interviews, behavior interventions, and IEP goals, provided no personal information is used and the user critically evaluates the outputs for effectiveness and potential harm.
- Prohibited Uses:
  - Fabricating, manipulating, or analyzing data.
  - Entering identifiable or sensitive data into AI systems.
  - Using AI models as proxies for human research participants ("silicon sampling") without rigorous validation and understanding of potential misrepresentation of identity groups.
- Attribution: Any use of AI in theses, papers, or presentations must be disclosed. Students should consult with their research advisor prior to using AI on a project.
Administrative Tasks / Workload Management
- AI tools may be used to alleviate administrative burdens and enhance efficiency in tasks that do not involve sensitive client data or core professional judgment, such as generating emails for correspondence or drafting general clinic policies.
- AI scribes can assist in documenting encounters, freeing up time for direct interaction, but awareness of potential "hallucinations" and over-reliance is crucial.

Training and Awareness

The program is committed to ensuring that both students and faculty/staff are proficient and ethical users of AI.

Mandatory Training: AI-focused material will be integrated into the curriculum, particularly in ethics, assessment, consultation, counseling, and practicum courses, to promote ethical AI usage and enhance AI literacy.
Core Competencies: This training will be aligned with Discipline-Specific Knowledge and Profession-Wide Competencies, addressing AI's limitations, potential biases, and the importance of human judgment.
Continuous Education: Faculty are expected to engage in continuous education on AI developments and model appropriate AI use. Students and faculty will participate in ongoing professional development to stay informed about AI advancements and best practices.
Supervision: Receiving supervision in AI use is crucial for ethical and effective practice, particularly in clinical settings.

Violations and Consequences

Any misuse of AI tools or breach of this policy, particularly those involving client confidentiality, academic integrity, or ethical standards, will be treated as a serious matter.

Consequences: Violations may result in remediation, academic discipline (e.g., no credit for assignments/tests, failing the class), or removal from practicum or internship settings, depending on the severity of the situation.
Serious Violations: Repeated or serious violations may lead to dismissal from the program.

Continuous Improvement and Review

The program acknowledges that the field of AI is rapidly evolving and commits to a proactive, data-driven approach to its AI policy.

Regular Review: This policy will be reviewed and updated regularly (e.g., annually) to ensure its continued relevance and effectiveness.
Formative Assessment: The program will actively engage with students, faculty, and relevant professional organizations (e.g., NASP, APA) to gather feedback and inform policy revisions.
Outcome Monitoring: The program will develop and implement clear approaches to systematically assess how AI use affects student learning, development of core competencies, and overall program outcomes to make informed decisions about AI integration.

American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct.

American Psychological Association. (2025). Ethical guidance for psychological practice with artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies.

Farmer, R, Lockwood, A., Goforth, A., & Thomas, C. (2024). Artificial intelligence in practice: Opportunities, challenges, and ethical considerations. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. 56(1), 19–32.

Lockwood, A. Brown, J. (2025). Mitigating AI bias in school psychology: Toward equitable and ethical implementation. School Psychology Review.

Luo, J. (2024). A critical review of GenAI policies in higher education assessment: a call to reconsider the “originality” of students’ work. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 49(5), 651-664.

National Association of School Psychologists. (2020). The professional standards of the National Association of school psychologists.

Citation: Lockwood, A., Cara, D., Newman, D., Villarreal, J., Fulwood, J., & Dowon, C. (2025). Example AI policy for school psychology training programs: Cultivating ethical and competent AI use.

Full Disclosure – NotebookLM was used to help organize and provide themes for this paper.