Should AI have a place in your child’s schoolwork?

As children return to school, many parents are going to discover that one of the most important decisions about homework is no longer whether it gets done before dinner or before bedtime. A child can now sit down with an assignment, open an AI chatbot and have immediate access to something that can explain the lesson, answer questions, solve problems, suggest ideas, edit writing – and, if asked, do much of the assignment itself.

That makes AI different from most of the tools parents have previously had to consider. The question is no longer coming, it’s already sitting beside children while they do their schoolwork.

In a 2026 Pew Research Center study, 54 percent of U.S. teens said they had used AI chatbots for help with schoolwork. One in ten said chatbots help with all or most of their schoolwork. Younger children are using AI as well. Common Sense Media surveyed children ages nine through 17 this year and found that 86 percent use AI, with homework help among its common uses.

So should parents allow it?

For most families, the best answer is likely a limited yes. AI can have a useful place in schoolwork, but simply giving permission to use it leaves too many important questions unanswered. Before deciding what that permission should look like, parents need to consider four things.

Let AI tutor, not perform
The first question is what AI will actually be allowed to do.

Allow AI to explain something that was confusing in class. Let it demonstrate a similar math problem and then require the assigned problems to be completed without it. Let it quiz for tomorrow’s science test. Ask it to explain why an attempted answer was wrong. After an essay has been written, it can point out passages that are unclear and leave the writer to decide what needs changing.

Do not let it write the essay, solve the assigned problems, answer the reading questions, produce the student’s original ideas, or replace assigned reading with a summary. Those uses give AI the very work through which the student was supposed to develop a skill.

There is good reason to make that distinction. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an international organization that conducts extensive work on education, examined the growing research on AI and learning in 2026. Students can produce better work with general-purpose AI without actually learning more. In some studies, their advantage disappeared or even reversed when AI was removed and they had to perform independently. AI used intentionally to help students learn, however, can improve learning.

Parents can check the difference quite easily. After AI has helped, take it away. Can the student do things like explain the concept, solve another problem, discuss the reading, or defend an argument in an essay on their own? If the answer is yes, AI may have helped teach something. If the ability disappears when AI disappears, too much of the work was handed over.

There is one rule that comes before any family decision. If the teacher prohibits AI on an assignment, don’t use it. Teachers sometimes need to know what students can do independently, and AI assistance defeats that purpose. It also becomes an academic-integrity issue. Pew found that 59 percent of teens believe AI-assisted cheating occurs at least somewhat often in their schools.

Never assume AI is right
The second consideration is whether a student is ready to question what AI says.

AI can give an excellent explanation and still be wrong. It can misunderstand a question, invent a fact, provide a source that does not exist, or give outdated information. One of its dangers is that incorrect information can arrive in language that sounds every bit as confident as correct information. Students therefore need to learn early that an AI answer is something to evaluate, not something to automatically believe.

For ordinary homework help, that may mean checking the textbook or class materials when an answer seems questionable. Research assignments require more. If AI provides a fact, quotation, or source that will be used in schoolwork, the student should locate the original source and verify it. A citation generated by AI should never go into a paper simply because it looks legitimate.

This becomes especially important with younger students. Recognizing a bad answer often requires knowledge of the subject, and someone who is just learning about photosynthesis or the Civil War may have little basis for recognizing a convincing error.

Younger students need more supervision
That leads directly to the third consideration: how much independence is appropriate. Elementary-age students should generally use AI with a parent involved.

This is important because younger children they are still developing foundational academic skills. Reading, writing, arithmetic, and problem-solving require practice. If AI routinely removes the difficult parts, it can also remove the practice developing those abilities need.

Parental involvement does not have to turn homework into surveillance. When AI is needed, sit down long enough to know why it is being used. Help formulate the question and check the response. If AI has provided the explanation that was needed, close it and return the work to the student.

As students mature, more freedom can follow good judgment. An older student who follows teacher rules, checks questionable information, understands what work must remain personal, and can use AI without becoming dependent upon it has earned more independence.

That freedom should also include clear expectations about privacy. Students should not give a chatbot passwords, addresses, private family information, medical information, or other sensitive personal details simply because the interaction feels like a private conversation.

And that feeling of conversation raises the fourth consideration.

Keep AI out of roles where it does not belong
The AI assistant that explains tonight’s math assignment can keep talking after the math is finished. It can sound patient, interested, encouraging, and sympathetic. For some young people, that experience has made AI much more than a tool.

Common Sense Media found that nearly three out of four teens had used AI companions. Among those users, about one-third had chosen an AI companion instead of another person for an important or serious conversation. Its newer research among nine to 17-year-olds found that more than one-third of AI users had talked with AI about feelings or personal problems.

Parents do not need to assume that using AI for homework will lead to an emotional relationship with it. But they do need to make sure their children understand that an AI system that is useful for explaining geometry has not earned the right to advise them about their lives.

There are serious reasons for that boundary. Researchers working with Common Sense Media and Stanford Medicine have tested AI systems while posing as young users and documented disturbing responses involving self-harm, sexual content, and other dangerous situations. AI can sound understanding while possessing no human understanding of the person receiving its advice and no responsibility for what happens afterward.

Permission to use AI for schoolwork should therefore come with a firm limit: AI is not a friend, counselor, confidant, or substitute for a trustworthy person. Questions involving emotional distress, relationships, personal safety, or serious decisions belong with parents and other responsible people who can actually know the young person involved.

None of this requires parents to become experts in artificial intelligence. It does require remaining involved enough to know what role AI is assuming.

If it explains a difficult concept and sends the student back to the work with greater understanding, it may be an excellent tool. If it is routinely producing answers, writing assignments or removing the need to wrestle with difficult material, pull it back. If an older student begins treating it as unquestionably reliable, require verification. If conversations move from schoolwork into personal guidance, that is a different boundary altogether.

There will also be times when the best decision is simply to leave AI closed. Getting stuck, searching for the right words, remembering something without a prompt, making a mistake and trying again can feel inefficient. Those experiences are also part of basic learning.

Today’s students will probably spend their adult lives with artificial intelligence far more capable than anything available now. Knowing how to use it will matter. So will knowing when to refuse its help. Parents have an opportunity during these school years to help their sons and daughters develop that judgment while the habits are still forming. The goal is for AI to make more learning possible without making students less able to learn, think, and work for themselves.

Scotty