AI in Special Education is Increasing: What Parents Should Know

As a parent of a child receiving special education services, you may have heard about artificial intelligence (AI) being used in education. AI refers to computer systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making and language translation.

While AI is still an emerging field in education, elements of AI have been around for a long time. Has your child taken an adaptive assessment (one that gets more challenging as your child answers each question correctly)? That is one example of artificial intelligence currently used widely in schools.

AI has the potential to support special education in valuable ways. At the same time, there are important considerations around how AI is developed and implemented ethically. Here are three key reasons why it's important for parents to get informed about AI now:

AI could help personalize learning for your child.

One of the greatest benefits of AI is using data to adapt the curriculum and learning resources to each student's strengths, gaps, and optimal learning styles. This type of personalized and "adaptive" learning could be enormously helpful for students in special education.

There are important risks to prevent.

As useful as AI could be, there are also risks like student privacy violations, algorithmic bias discriminating against people with disabilities, and lack of transparency around how the AI makes decisions. Being aware of these concerns now allows parents to advocate for ethical AI policies and practices.

Unintended negative consequences are possible.

When AI software makes IEP suggestions for annual goals or accommodations, for example, it may inadvertently widen achievement gaps if the algorithms and data are flawed or biased. Parents need to pay close attention to avoid unintended negative impacts on their children.

Parent advocates should approach AI in special education with an open but cautious mindset. Support the positive possibilities of using AI to personalize learning for your child, while also being an advocate to ensure AI is developed and implemented with strong privacy protections, anti-bias safeguards, transparency and parent and teacher oversight.

Source:

This blog post was inspired by The U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology’s policy report, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning. Every parent of a child with a disability should read it!