NYFERA may use artificial intelligence to support research, writing, editing, and the development of educational resources. This policy establishes the standards that apply whenever AI contributes to our content, school profiles, data resources, or tools.
Responsibility for published material remains with NYFERA. AI assistance does not replace source verification, editorial judgment, or accountability for errors.
AI systems can produce convincing statements that are inaccurate, unsupported, or fabricated. Their outputs may also introduce bias, omit important context, or expose sensitive information. These are recognized risks in guidance from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
AI-generated material must therefore be treated as a draft or research lead, not as evidence.
AI may assist with developing outlines, explaining terminology, improving readability, suggesting research questions, preparing draft summaries, translating text, and identifying inconsistencies for further investigation. It may also support coding, accessibility improvements, and the preparation of charts or tables from verified data.
These uses remain subject to the same editorial standards as other work. A summary must accurately reflect its source. A translation must preserve meaning and qualifications. A chart must represent the underlying figures correctly.
Factual claims must be checked against identifiable sources before publication. Relevant sources may include official education records, school and district publications, government guidance, original research, and other reliable documentation.
AI-generated citations must be independently located and reviewed. A source must support the specific claim attributed to it. An AI response, search summary, or plausible-looking reference is not sufficient verification.
Published articles and substantially AI-generated narratives require human review and approval. Automated data updates require validated procedures, appropriate checks, and human oversight of exceptions and material changes.
For school profiles, AI must not invent programs, admissions requirements, services, staffing details, contact information, or performance results. Information must be matched to the correct school using official identifiers and supporting records where available. Missing information must remain identified as unavailable.
AI must not manufacture or silently alter education data. Numerical values must come from documented sources or clearly explained calculations. Relevant reporting periods, units, denominators, and limitations must accompany their interpretation.
Suppressed values must not be reconstructed. Missing values must not be replaced with zero. Estimates must be clearly labeled, supported by a suitable method, and distinguished from reported observations. AI-generated explanations must not turn a statistical association into a claim of causation.
NYFERA does not permit AI to generate unsupported school rankings, predict an individual student’s outcomes, or make admissions or eligibility decisions.
Student privacy takes priority over convenience. Confidential student records, individualized education documents, identification numbers, private correspondence, and sensitive personal information must not be entered into general-purpose AI services for editorial work.
Removing a name does not necessarily make information anonymous. Student information may be identifying through indirect details or combinations of information, as explained by the U.S. Department of Education’s student privacy resources.
Public aggregate data must also be handled carefully. AI must not be used to identify students from published datasets or infer private characteristics about individuals.
Material AI involvement must be disclosed when it helps readers understand how content was produced. This includes substantial AI drafting, machine translation without full language review, synthetic media, and reader-facing AI functionality. Routine spelling or formatting assistance does not ordinarily require a separate notice.
Disclosures must describe the assistance accurately. They must not claim expert review, independent verification, or human approval that did not occur.
AI-generated images must be identified when readers could mistake them for documentary photographs. Synthetic images must not be presented as evidence of actual schools, students, staff, facilities, or events. Charts and maps must use verified information rather than generated visual approximations.
NYFERA does not permit fabricated quotations, interviews, testimonials, author identities, credentials, or firsthand experiences. AI assistance also does not authorize copying protected material or disguising another publisher’s work through superficial rewriting.
If AI features are introduced for readers, their purpose, limitations, and relevant data handling must be explained before use. Answers must be distinguishable from official school or government guidance.
Readers may report suspected inaccuracies, misleading disclosures, privacy concerns, or fabricated references through our contact page. Reports should identify the affected page and include supporting information without sharing confidential student records.
Material errors require correction or removal, with an explanatory note where appropriate. This policy should be reviewed as NYFERA’s tools, publishing practices, and use of AI change.