Why This Matters: The Purpose of This Guidance
Supporting Safe, Smart, and Ethical AI Use in Kentucky’s Student Tech Leaders
STLP believes students can be leaders, not just users, of the technology shaping our future. As artificial intelligence (AI) tools become more common in education and creative work, it’s important that student leaders understand both their power and responsibility.
This guidance provides clear, student-centered expectations. The guidance aims not to restrict creativity, but to offer safe bumper lanes that help students explore AI in ethical, transparent, and creative ways. It builds on the KDE AI Guidance Brief (2024), which encourages schools to foster human-centered, ethical, and informed use of AI in learning.
Student Summary: STLP wants you to explore AI in ways that make your projects smarter and more meaningful. This guidance helps you use AI the right way—as a leader, learner, and digital citizen.
STLP Supports Student Leadership Through AI Use
STLP students don’t just consume technology, they lead with it. Responsible AI use allows students to:
- Solve real-world problems
- Demonstrate innovation
- Model ethical technology use for peers
Student Summary: You’re a tech leader in STLP! That means using AI in ways that help others, follow the rules, and show what student leaders can do.
STLP Digital Citizenship & Copyright Expectations
All STLP participants must follow the STLP Digital Citizenship Guidelines, which include:
- No AI-generated content may be submitted in Creative Digital Arts (CDA) competitions. CDA entries must be 100% student-created. For CDA, AI should only be utilized for inspiration if at all.
- AI use is allowed (with conditions) in other STLP Competitions (Project Cycle and Challenges)
- When students use content or tools (including AI) not created by themselves, they must provide clear attribution and confirm they have permission or appropriate usage rights.
- Students must follow their district’s guidelines for student AI use and must respect age requirements of AI tools.
Student Summary: In CDA, all your creative work must be your own, no AI! For other contests, if AI helps, tell us how. Always follow your school’s rules and age limits.
Using AI in STLP the Right Way
AI use is encouraged in the STLP Project Cycle and many Live Challenges (unless noted otherwise), as long as:
- AI is used as a support tool, not to generate the final product
- Students fully disclose how and where AI was used
- All use aligns with district expectations, age limits, and digital citizenship principles
Student Summary: Use AI as a helper, not a replacement. And be honest about how you used it!
Examples of Good AI Use
- Brainstorming project ideas using ChatGPT or similar tools
- Generating sample survey questions
- Creating concept mockups (not final designs) with AI image tools
- Using translation or accessibility features
- Organizing research or summarizing background info for planning
Student Summary: Let AI help you plan, organize, and explore …but you still lead the work!
How This Ties to Your Learning: Standards Alignment
Using AI responsibly connects directly to your growth in areas outlined in Kentucky’s academic standards. Here are just a few relevant examples:
Kentucky Academic Standards for Technology + STLP Connections
The KAS for Technology emphasize digital citizenship, collaboration, and the use of digital tools for problem-solving and innovation. These expectations align directly with how STLP encourages students to explore and disclose their use of AI in projects and competitions. Here are several examples:
DC1.B.1 – Recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world; act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical. Engage in positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology, including social interactions online or when using networked devices.
Connection: This is the foundation of STLP’s AI guidance. It supports expectations around AI use disclosure, data privacy, and upholding digital citizenship when students use generative tools.
ID1.A.1 – Use a variety of technologies to identify and solve authentic real-world problems. Find authentic real-world problems in local and global contexts.
Connection: Students may use AI to brainstorm community challenges, generate project ideas, or organize their team thinking during STLP Project Cycle ideation.
CT1.C.1 – Develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions. Break problems into component parts, extract key information, and develop descriptive models to understand complex systems or facilitate problem-solving.
Connection: AI tools can help students develop a broader range of potential solutions, especially during early-stage planning and prototyping.
ID2.A.1 – Use a variety of technologies within a design process to create new, useful and imaginative solutions. Know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.
Connection: AI can support various stages of the STLP design process by helping students visualize interfaces, explore accessibility ideas, or simulate user feedback.
CC1.C.1 – Communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals, audience and task. Communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations.
Connection: Students might use AI tools to help translate information, improve clarity in their writing, or generate draft slide content—always with proper attribution and student-led revisions.
KC1.C.1,2 – Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge. Curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.
Connection: AI can support students in collecting and organizing research data, but students must still evaluate the credibility and appropriateness of AI-generated results.
View Kentucky Academic Standards for Technology
Kentucky Academic Standards for Library Media Connections
The KAS for Library Media emphasize responsible information use, ethical research practices, and the creation of original content. These standards align strongly with how STLP guides students to use AI tools with transparency, creativity, and digital citizenship in mind.
LM.CT.S2.A – Contributing to collaboratively constructed information sites by ethicallyusing and reproducing others’ work.
Connection: This standard supports one of STLP’s core expectations: if a student uses an AI tool to assist with content creation, they must clearly disclose it and give appropriate credit. It also reinforces the CDA rule that only original student work can be submitted.
LM.EG.T3.A – Evaluating information for accuracy, validity, social and cultural context, and appropriateness for need.
Connection: When students use AI-generated content in research, planning, or drafting, they must also evaluate whether the information is factual, biased, or even fabricated. This standard supports the idea that AI should assist—not replace—critical thinking.
LM.EG.C1.A– Learners use valid information and reasoned conclusions to make ethical decisions in the creation of knowledge by ethically using and reproducing others’ work.
Connection: Generative AI models often remix data or art pulled from other creators. STLP students must demonstrate awareness of copyright concerns and understand when using AI tools may violate the rights of others—especially when generating images, music, or writing.
LM.CT.G1.A – Independently curate and continually evaluate resources for authority, accuracy, and relevancy.
Connection: STLP students are encouraged to use AI to help generate ideas, structure information, or enhance their design process—as long as the final product reflects original thinking and the tool’s role is transparently disclosed.
LM.CL.G1.A – With guidance and support, actively contribute to group discussions by adding information to help others better understand the concept.
Connection: In the STLP Project Cycle and Live Challenges, students may use AI to simulate brainstorming or prompt reflective questions that help refine their team’s approach. This encourages dialogue and supports collaborative thinking.
Kentucky Academic Standards for Computer Science + STLP Connections
The KAS for Computer Science includes standards that directly align with student learning goals when exploring, using, and disclosing AI tools in STLP. These standards emphasize computational thinking, data handling, responsible computing, and the ethical impacts of technology.
CS.IC.01– Discuss how computing has impacted society. Students demonstrate an understanding that computing technology has positively and negatively changed the way people live and work.
Connection: Exploring AI in STLP means examining how AI is used across industries and cultures. Students might create projects that reflect on how voice assistants affect communication or how language models may unintentionally reinforce cultural biases.
CS.IC.02 – Evaluate and assess how computing impacts personal, ethical, social, economic, and cultural practices.
Connection: When students consider how AI might improve accessibility, streamline communication, or pose challenges (e.g., bias or misinformation), they demonstrate an understanding of computing’s real-world implications—just like in the STLP Project Cycle or Help Desk Challenge.
CS.IC.03 – Research how computational innovations that have revolutionized aspects of our culture might have evolved from a need to solve a problem.
Connection: When students integrate AI into a project about environmental data tracking or education accessibility, they’re showing how computing fuels cross-disciplinary innovation.
CS.DA.02 – Collect and visually display data using appropriate applications.
Connection: Students might use AI to organize large amounts of community data and visualize trends—learning to use tools ethically to support analysis while taking ownership of how data is interpreted and displayed.
CS.NI.01 – Understand the basic components of how networks operate to protect physicaland digital information.
Connection: STLP students who use AI tools are expected to follow privacy and security best practices—especially when entering data into platforms that process or store information. This standard supports guidance about being cautious and district-compliant when using cloud-based AI tools.
Including the KAS-CS, Technology, and Library Media strengthens the AI Use Guidance by showing that student engagement with AI isn’t just about tools—it’s about:
- Computational thinking
- Ethical and social responsibility
- Cross-disciplinary innovation
- Data-driven reasoning
- Secure, responsible computing
These connections can also help STLP Coaches advocate for projects that align with state-approved standards and district learning goals.
Student Summary: Following this guidance helps you meet real academic standards tied to your future success.
What You’ll Need to Submit for STLP Entries
For non-CDA competitions, students who use AI must complete an AI Use Disclosure that includes:
- Which AI tools were used
- What they were used for
- What parts of the project were student-created vs. AI-assisted
Use of AI in approved STLP competition areas is not a penalty. We just want to learn from you how you’re using AI tools so STLP can better support AI integration is events and activities. Also, future best practices will include disclosure of AI generated materials in most, if not all, academic and professional scenarios. As usual, STLP wants to model these qualities of leadership inside STLP activities and resources.
Student Summary: Just be transparent. If AI helped, that’s okay, as long as you explain how. Help us learn how AI is valuable to you and your STLP journey.
Ongoing Review and Updates
This is a living document. STLP will review and update this guidance regularly based on:
- New KDE guidance
- Technology trends and tools
- Feedback from coaches, judges, and students
The latest version is always available at stlp.education.ky.gov.
Final Thoughts
STLP encourages students to lead with curiosity, ethics, and creativity. When used responsibly, AI can be a powerful partner in your learning and leadership journey.
Student Summary: AI is powerful. But you’re the one in charge. Use it wisely. Lead with it. And show what student tech leaders can do.
NOTE: AI language models were utilized in the editing of this guidance post.