Your school is required to have a position. You are allowed to ask what it is.
Any New Zealand school with consent to assess must include acceptable use of AI in an authenticity policy. That is not optional and it is not new.
What varies enormously is how developed that policy is. Some schools have thought this through carefully. Many are still working it out, which is fair, because the Ministry's guidance is high level and the Education Minister has publicly acknowledged it could be better.
Either way, you are entitled to know what your child is being held to.
What a good policy actually covers
Use this as a checklist rather than a test. Most schools will have some of it.
- Which tools are permitted, by year level. A blanket rule across Years 7 to 13 is a warning sign.
- The internal versus external distinction. Generative AI is not permitted in NCEA external assessment. Internal is where the school's own rules apply, and students need that difference spelled out.
- How students declare AI use. A specific mechanism, not a vague expectation of honesty.
- What happens when the rules are breached. Written down before it happens, not decided in the moment.
- Staff use, not just student use. Around 69% of NZ teachers use AI weekly. A policy that governs only children is half a policy.
- Privacy and data. Which tools student work is being put into, and where that data goes.
- Te reo and mātauranga Māori. AI models handle both poorly. A policy that has considered this has been written by someone paying attention.
How to ask without becoming that parent
Tone does most of the work here. You are asking to support the school, not to audit it.
Something like:
"Hi, I am trying to give my child consistent guidance at home about using AI for schoolwork. Does the school have a position or policy I could read, so I am reinforcing the same message rather than confusing things? Happy to be pointed at whatever exists."
That email gets answered. "What is your AI policy and why have I not seen it" does not.
If they do not have one yet
Be useful rather than adversarial. Most schools are genuinely trying to work this out with limited guidance and no spare capacity.
Offer to share what you have found. Ask whether it is being discussed at board level. Suggest it as a topic for a parent evening. Schools tend to move faster when parents show interest than when they show up with complaints.
Why this matters more than it sounds
Right now roughly 60% of young New Zealanders use AI for schoolwork, most schools are mid way through forming a position, and most parents have never asked what that position is.
Your child is standing in the middle of that gap, guessing. One email closes it.
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