Closing in on the end of the calendar year, the USD 260 Derby Board of Education passed a series of policies aiming to clarify artificial intelligence (AI) usage and parental opt-out rights within the district.
Board Vice President Cathy Boote said that during the 2024-2025 school year, she began to be concerned about so-called “deepfakes” — videos and photos generated by generative artificial intelligence tools that can make people appear to do and say things they had not — and that they can be particularly difficult to detect.
“I kind of checked into it, and in my research, I found several districts across the country that had some issues with deepfakes that affected not only students, but staff members too,” she said in a recent telephone interview with The Sentinel. “And so I kind of homed in on that. I felt like, you know, there’s a lot of areas of AI that we needed to delve into too, but that’s certainly not my area of expertise. But I couldn’t see any reason why we couldn’t develop a policy right away to protect our students and staff.”
The deepfake policy prohibits students from:
- Create(ing), share(ing), or possess(ing) AI-generated or altered media that falsely depicts another person in an obscene, defamatory, or harmful manner;
- Use(ing) AI tools to impersonate, bully, harass, threaten, or intimidate any individual;
- Post(ing), transmit(ing), or disseminat(ing) deepfake content that disrupts the school environment or violates law; or
- Use(ing) district technology systems … to create or distribute deepfake or synthetic content in violation of this policy.
The policies also direct the superintendent to establish an approved inventory of artificial intelligence tools that have been evaluated for compliance with federal and state law, as well as privacy and cybersecurity standards. The superintendent is also required to approve any classroom and administrative uses of it and “ensure that no AI application is used to collect, store, or transmit personally identifiable information without appropriate authorization and vendor safeguards.”
The academic AI policy does permit students to use artificial intelligence for:
- Idea generation, editing, or skill development only when expressly permitted by the teacher.
- When AI use is permitted, students shall disclose the name of the tool and site utilized or attach the relevant portions of the AI-generated material incorporated into their work.
- Teachers may integrate AI tools into instruction for legitimate educational purposes while ensuring student data privacy in accordance with (district policy).
However, the policy also states that “students shall not:”
- Use AI to generate or substantially complete assignments, essays, or assessments without explicit authorization;
- Submit AI-generated work as their own;
- Use AI to fabricate sources, falsify data, or impersonate another individual; and/or
- Employ AI tools in violation of teacher instructions (or district policies).
Derby also adopted a Mahmood v. Taylor opt-out policy
In the June 2025 Mahmood v. Taylor decision, the United States Supreme Court held that parents have a right to be notified of “religiously objectionable” instruction — such as books that address transgenderism for kindergarten students — and have the opportunity to opt their children out of that instruction.
In November of 2025, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach sent a letter to KSBE demanding that board members comply with the conditions outlined in Mahmood.
Kobach wrote that his office has “received allegations that several schools in Kansas: (1) maintain books containing normative views on sexual orientation and homosexual marriage, gender identity, and transgender issues; (2) maintain an affirmative or discretionary policy of instructing students on such issues; and/or (3) transitioning minors without parental knowledge or consent.
“In its recent decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, the United States Supreme Court held that a public school violates the religious liberties of parents if it maintains a policy of using religiously objectionable books and materials in classroom instruction without allowing parents the right to opt out of such instruction.”
Boote said Derby’s policies contained most, but not all, of the requirements in Mahmood and convinced the board to adopt a policy based mainly on a model policy released earlier in 2025 by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.
The new policy in Derby requires that schools and staff “shall remain viewpoint-neutral and shall not grant or deny requests based on agreement or disagreement with a family’s beliefs.”
It also requires that parents be notified and allowed to opt out “before their student participates in classroom discussions, activities, or instruction addressing topics that are known to be or are reasonably ascertainable to be contrary to the religious beliefs of parents. Teachers shall provide parents access to instructional materials, lesson plans, or presentations upon request. The intent of this provision is to ensure transparency, uphold parental rights, and maintain trust between the school and families.”
The opt-out requests must be made yearly.
