# AI for schoolwork

**Should our child use AI for schoolwork?**

Whether and how your child may use AI for homework, from not allowed to research help only to following the teacher's policy.

In short: Parents choose between 4 main approaches: Not allowed; Research and explanation only; Follow each teacher's policy; Free use. Evidence: your call. No outcome evidence picks a winner. Preference, culture, money and logistics decide. Best settled: tween.

- Area: Screens, phones and digital life
- Evidence: Your call
- Best settled: Tween
- First published: 2026-10-03
- Last updated: 2026-10-05
- Page: https://www.raisingyourchild.com/topics/screens-phones-and-digital-life--ai-for-schoolwork

## AI for schoolwork: what are the options?

1. **Not allowed**: The child may not use AI for school.
2. **Research and explanation only**: The child may use AI to look things up and understand them, but not to write the work.
3. **Follow each teacher's policy**: The child follows whatever each teacher permits.
4. **Free use**: The child uses AI however they want.

## AI for schoolwork: what does the evidence say?

**Your call.** No outcome evidence picks a winner. Preference, culture, money and logistics decide.

Teens themselves rate research far more acceptable than essay-writing

Sources:

- [Pew](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/01/15/about-a-quarter-of-us-teens-have-used-chatgpt-for-schoolwork-double-the-share-in-2023/)

## What else is worth knowing?

AI tools can explain ideas, check work or write an essay outright. Schools and teachers set different rules. The family question is where help ends and doing the work for the child begins.

## Questions to ask each other

- What uses of AI for homework would we be fine with, and which feel like cheating?
- How would we know what the school allows?
- How would we respond if we found out our child used it to write an essay?

---

General information, not medical advice. Two parents can each answer this and compare: https://www.raisingyourchild.com/explore?cat=screens-phones-and-digital-life&topic=screens-phones-and-digital-life--ai-for-schoolwork