AI tools for principals: 5 tasks to try this week, 2 to skip
The best AI tools for principals are district-approved assistants used for drafts you check. Five tasks to try this week, two to skip.
The best AI tools for principals are the assistants your district already approved, used for drafts you check yourself. Try five low-risk tasks this week, and skip two: identifiable student or staff records, and high-stakes decisions.
You would not be the first to try. In a RAND survey, 58% of principals said they used AI tools for work in 2023-24. Only 18% said their school or district offered some type of guidance, according to RAND.
Why should principals try AI before they ask staff to?
Staff copy what you do, not what the policy says. If you have never checked an AI draft line by line, you cannot coach a teacher to do it. Trying it yourself turns a rule into a habit you can show.
The need is real. In early 2026, Gallup found that just 18% of U.S. public school teachers had any formal AI guidance from administrators. That gap closes faster when a principal can say, "Here is what I tried and checked."
Time matters too. Public school principals spent 58.3 hours a week on work in 2020-21, per federal data reported by Education Week. A tool that drafts routine writing may return some of those hours to classrooms.
RAND also asked principals what shaped their AI use, as reported by eSchool News. In RAND's data, 72% rated a lack of AI professional development as a major or minor influence. RAND found the same share, 70%, for privacy concerns and for uncertainty about how AI fits the job.
What principals told RAND about AI (2023-24)
This post, part of our Explain your work series, takes on two of those worries: what to try, and what to keep out. The idea behind the series is simple. Leaders model the habit we ask of students: say what AI did, what you checked, and what you changed.
AI tools for principals: five tasks to try this week
Each task below is drafting or sorting work. You stay the author and the decider. Use only your district-approved account, and remove names before you paste anything.
| Task | Why it helps | Your check |
|---|---|---|
| Parent newsletter from bullet points | Turns ten minutes of notes into a readable first draft | Every date, time, and promise matches the calendar |
| Meeting notes to action items | Pulls owners and due dates out of messy notes | Each owner confirms their item |
| Staff survey and comment summary | Drafts neutral questions and groups comments by theme | You read every comment before you trust a theme |
| Board presentation outline | Gives you a clear structure in minutes | Every number comes from your own records |
| Agenda or schedule options | Shows the trade-offs between options quickly | You test each option against real constraints and people |
1. Draft the parent newsletter from your bullet points
- Prompt idea: "Turn these bullets into a 250-word parent newsletter at a sixth-grade reading level. Keep every date and time exactly as written."
- Your check: Match every date, time, and promise to the school calendar. Read it aloud so it sounds like you.
- Do not paste: Student names, family situations, or anything you would not print.
2. Turn meeting notes into action items
- Prompt idea: "From these notes, list each decision, each action item with an owner and due date, and each open question. Flag anything unclear instead of guessing."
- Your check: Compare the list with your own memory of the meeting. Send it to each owner to confirm.
- Do not paste: Notes about a specific student, personnel matters, or anything shared in confidence.
3. Draft a staff survey, then summarize the open-ended answers
- Prompt idea: "Draft eight neutral questions for a staff survey on our new arrival routine." Later: "Group these anonymous comments into themes. Count each theme and show two short examples."
- Your check: Read every comment yourself. Spot-check the counts, and look for a minority view the summary flattened.
- Do not paste: Any comment that names a person, a room, or a role. On a small staff, an anonymous answer can still point to one person.
4. Outline a board or parent presentation
- Prompt idea: "Outline a 10-minute board update on our reading intervention in five slides. Ask me for each number you need. Do not invent data."
- Your check: Every figure comes from your records, not from the AI. Cut any claim you cannot back up.
- Do not paste: Student-level data. Use school totals, and avoid small groups that could identify a child.
5. Build an agenda or rough out schedule options
- Prompt idea: "Our constraints: six periods, two lunch waves, three shared teachers. Give me three schedule options and the trade-offs of each."
- Your check: Test each option against the constraints yourself. Then weigh what the model cannot see: people, history, and fit.
- Do not paste: Staff names tied to leave, health, or evaluations. Write "Teacher A" and "Teacher B" instead.
What should a principal never paste into an AI tool?
Start with the account. Use only district-approved tools and accounts. A personal login may not carry the district's data agreement. If you are unsure, ask your technology lead before the first prompt.
Then think like a privacy officer. The U.S. Department of Education explains this FERPA term plainly. Personally identifiable information in education records includes direct identifiers, such as a student's name or ID number. It also includes indirect identifiers, such as a date of birth, that can trace a student through other information.
This is not legal advice, and your district's privacy rules come first. The working rule is easy to remember: no student data in a prompt. If a detail could point to one child or one employee, leave it out.
Two tasks to skip, even when the tool can do them
Skip 1: identifiable student or staff records in a consumer tool
IEPs, discipline files, health notes, and personnel records do not belong in a consumer chatbot. Removing a name is not always enough, because a grade, a date, and a program can identify a child. If a task needs real records, it belongs in a district system built for them.
Skip 2: discipline, evaluation, placement, and final grades
These decisions change a person's record and their future. AI can tighten rubric language or draft a blank template, with no names or incident details. It should not recommend a consequence, rate a teacher, or set a final grade.
That is the human in the loop rule. AI drafts or narrows options, and a qualified educator decides. The person who decides also owns the outcome.
If you cannot explain how AI helped you, do not ask your staff to use it yet.Ernie Delgado, BeyondK12
How do you explain your AI use to staff?
At your next staff meeting, show one real example. Put the prompt, the AI draft, and your final version side by side. Point to what you changed and why.
That five-minute share does more than a policy email. It shows that checking is part of the job, and that the principal does it too.
How to run your first AI week
- Confirm the account. Use the district-approved tool and ask what data it allows. Keep the answer where you can see it.
- Pick one task a day. Monday the newsletter, Tuesday the meeting notes, and so on. One task a day is enough to learn the tool.
- Strip names before you paste. Replace people with roles or letters. Keep the original in your own files.
- Check like an editor. Read every line, verify every fact, and rewrite in your own voice.
- Keep a short log. Note the task, the minutes spent, and what you fixed. On Friday, decide what to keep.
One thing to do this week
Pick the Friday newsletter. Draft it with AI and check every line. On Monday, tell staff what AI did and what you changed. That one example will teach more than a training slide.
If you are weighing a paid tool for the office, read before you buy another AI license first. For a structured path, the 90-Day AI Readiness Accelerator includes a 12-hour leadership course.
People is one of five areas in the free AI Readiness Assessment. Eight questions score your school out of 24 across Policy, People, Curriculum, Guardrails, and Funding. Look closely at People, the area this post is about.
Related reading: Why school leaders must consider human in the loop AI for future-ready strategies and The role of AI ethics and human judgment in protecting student data in schools.
Questions school leaders ask
What are the best AI tools for principals?
The best ones are the general AI assistants your district has already approved, used through your district account. They handle drafting and sorting work well: newsletters, meeting notes, survey summaries, outlines, and schedule options. Ask your technology lead which tools are approved and what data each one allows before you start.
Can a principal put student information into an AI chatbot?
Not into a consumer tool, and not without checking your district's rules first. The U.S. Department of Education explains that personally identifiable information in education records includes direct identifiers like a student's name or ID number and indirect identifiers like a date of birth. The safe working rule is no student data in a prompt. This is not legal advice; your district's privacy lead has the final word.
How much time can AI save school staff?
Teachers who use AI tools at least weekly estimate they save 5.9 hours a week, according to a spring 2025 Gallup and Walton Family Foundation survey of U.S. public K-12 teachers. That is a self-estimate from teachers, not a measure for principals. Track your own minutes for a week to see what it does for you.
Should AI help with teacher evaluations or student discipline?
No. Evaluation, discipline, placement, and final grades change a person's record, so a qualified educator must make and own those decisions. AI can tighten rubric language or draft a blank template, with no names or incident details, but it should not recommend a consequence, rate a teacher, or set a grade.
How many principals use AI already?
In a RAND survey of the 2023-24 school year, 58% of principals said they used AI tools for work. Only 18% said their school or district offered some type of guidance on AI use. Most principals had no school or district guidance to follow.
Sources
- RAND, Uneven Adoption of Artificial Intelligence Tools Among U.S. Teachers and Principals in the 2023-2024 School Year (February 2025, via K-12 Dive) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-08)
- RAND principal survey findings on barriers to AI use (via eSchool News, March 2025) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-08)
- Gallup and Walton Family Foundation, three in ten teachers use AI weekly, saving six weeks a year (June 2025) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-08)
- Gallup and Walton Family Foundation, teachers receive no formal guidance on AI (2026) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-08)
- Education Week, principals still like their jobs, new data show (December 2022, NCES data for 2020-21) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-08)
- U.S. Department of Education, Student Privacy Policy Office, personally identifiable information for education records (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-08)
See where your school stands on AI, in five minutes
Eight questions. A score out of 24 across Policy, People, Curriculum, Guardrails, and Funding, with the three fixes that move it most. The report is yours whether or not you ever call us.