AI in schools, decoded
The AI terms school leaders actually meet — explained without the jargon. If a word in a policy document, an exam-board rule, or a vendor pitch has ever made you pause, it's probably on this page.
EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689)
The EU-wide law setting rules for AI based on risk level. Most everyday classroom AI use falls under “minimal risk.” A smaller set of uses in education — like automated exam proctoring or systems used to decide access to education — can be classified “high-risk,” which brings extra obligations.
High-risk AI system
Not a judgement on how dangerous a tool feels day to day. It's a specific legal category under the EU AI Act. If your school uses AI to make or influence decisions about admissions, assessment, or exam monitoring, it's worth checking whether that use falls into this bucket.
AESIA
Spain's AI supervisory agency (Agencia Española de Supervisión de Inteligencia Artificial). Spain's own AI law is still working its way through the system; AESIA is the body that will oversee it.
Marco de referencia (Consejo Escolar del Estado)
Spain's own national guidance framework for AI in schools, published June 2026. It grades AI use into three levels: Restringido (restricted), Asistido (assisted), and Integrado (integrated) — a useful shorthand for how much autonomy a given AI use should have in your school.
Approved-tools register
A living list (not a one-off document) of which AI tools your school allows, what each one is approved for specifically, and what it's known to get wrong. The register is the working part of a policy; the policy document is just where it lives.
Human-in-the-loop
Shorthand for “a person is genuinely expected to look at this before it goes anywhere,” not just technically able to. The difference between the two is most of what a good AI policy is trying to protect.
Hallucination
When an AI tool states something false with total confidence — a made-up source, a coursework title nobody submitted. It's not a bug you'll always spot; that's exactly why “always check it” needs to say what to check for.
Generative AI
Tools that create new text, images, or other content in response to a prompt (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot). Most of what schools mean when they say “AI” right now.
Academic integrity frameworks (JCQ / CAIE / IB)
The exam-board specific rules on what counts as acceptable AI use in coursework and assessment. Worth checking against your specific curriculum, since they don't all say the same thing.
AI readiness review
A structured look at where a school actually stands with AI right now — what's being used, by whom, how confidently — as distinct from where policy says it stands.
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