Each fall, all students at Archbishop Stepinac High School prepare a presentation for their English and social studies classes—it’s the first research project of the school year. Last year, for the first time, when students at the private Catholic preparatory high school searched key terms of their topic online, an AI overview appeared at the top of their results, highlighting various aspects of their specific research question.
Some students paused before copying the outline into a document.
Is this allowed?
Using artificial intelligence is no longer a conscious decision. Today, it takes effort to turn off AI-generated search overviews or decline offers to research and write one’s work. As AI becomes an everyday part of students’ academic lives, educators are asking a new question: How can schools embrace the technology without diminishing authentic learning and human connection?
Many school district leaders in the region turn to Model Schools, a program of the Lower Hudson Regional Information Center, for help navigating that question. The program offers conversations, presentations, and workshops that help school and district leaders thoughtfully integrate educational technology into their classrooms.
“Based on our sessions last year, educators are shifting their energy from being solely vexed by AI—and all the concerns that come with it, including cheating, depersonalization, and threats to cognitive development—to learning to live with AI in a way that recaptures learner voice and work ethic,” said Leslie Accardo, Model Schools Coordinator for Instructional Technology.
Of the districts and schools that participate in Model Schools, Archbishop Stepinac High School is the only non-public school in the network. The initiative is led by Stepinac’s Director of Strategic Planning and Faculty Development, Dr. Todd Maguire, who schedules two professional development sessions for the school’s educators and administrators with Model Schools each year.
“The access Model Schools provides to other school and district leaders is invaluable,” said Patricia Murphy, Stepinac’s Director of Instructional Technology and Engineering. “It’s kept us on the cutting edge of technology.”
During their spring professional development session, Stepinac educators discussed Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas, released in May 2026, which addresses safeguarding the human person in the age of artificial intelligence.
“The central question is whether our use of AI protects and strengthens the deeply human work of teaching, learning, and forming relationships,” said Dr. Maguire. "This will be a focus of our annual fall professional development with Model Schools, and with our students.”
“Stepinac blends classic tradition with modern innovation,” said Ms. Accardo. “They evaluate the use of AI through the lens of their tradition and values.”
Like many schools, Stepinac recently adopted a formal AI policy, which school leaders describe as a living document that will continue to evolve.
The policy explains that students may use AI to help generate research and organize outlines for essays, projects, and presentations, but all writing must be their own. New this year, instructors will conduct spot checks using Turnitin, a platform that helps identify AI-generated writing. If a paper is determined to be more than 25 percent AI-assisted, or if a student is found to have used AI to cheat or plagiarize, the policy outlines disciplinary consequences.
“We’ll also use infractions as teachable moments,” Dr. Maguire said.
Yet some of Stepinac’s most important responses to AI are not found anywhere in the policy.
The school’s peer mentoring program, available to all juniors and seniors, intentionally pairs upperclassmen with freshmen to build relationships, strengthen leadership, foster belonging, and promote school unity.
“AI can generate answers, but it can’t nurture empathy, friendship, or creativity rooted in lived experience,” said Dr. Maguire. “Our goal is to promote truth and critical thinking while advancing human relationships.”