Students at Huron Heights Secondary School in Newmarket, Ontario, are now operating under updated artificial intelligence guidelines issued by the York Region District School Board (YRDSB). The board published an updated Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) & Academic Integrity Framework on Feb. 11, 2026, and Huron Heights integrated the guidance on its school site.
The YRDSB guidance is meant to help students use generative AI tools safely and responsibly while protecting privacy. It highlights board-approved enterprise tools — for example, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot — which the board says meet its security and privacy standards and do not use student data to train models. The guidelines emphasize that students must follow teacher instructions about AI use, disclose and cite any AI assistance, and that unauthorized AI-generated work will be handled as academic dishonesty under existing Board policies (Policy #305.0).
The framework introduces the idea of ‘Permission Zones’ (often described in reporting as red/yellow/green) to indicate when AI may be used — for example, for brainstorming — and when work must be entirely student-created. The board’s materials stress teacher direction and assessment-specific expectations rather than a one-size-fits-all rule. The stated goal is to shift assessment practice from simply asking ‘Who wrote this?’ to a clearer understanding of how a student’s work was produced and verified.
The update aims to reduce inconsistency across classrooms, where teachers previously set varying AI rules. For students and families at Huron Heights, that will likely mean clearer classroom instructions about allowable AI use and, in some cases, more in-class, human-verified work and evidence of learning. Teachers may ask students to disclose how they used AI or to provide edit histories or reflections as part of certain assessments.
YRDSB materials also describe privacy and data-protection measures and advise students not to enter personal identifying information into AI tools. The board says IT and privacy teams use assessments and enterprise agreements to protect student data. According to the Research Dossier and the board’s student guidelines, these changes took effect immediately for the second semester of the 2025–2026 school year.
For more details, see the YRDSB Artificial Intelligence information and the Student AI Guidelines (Grades 7–12) on the board website.
