AI Leadership Quick Start — My 30-Day Action Plan
Power Session #3 · September 2, 2026 · Defining My Way Academy

AI Leadership Quick Start:
My 30-Day Action Plan

A working tool for charter and non-traditional school leaders — fill it in during the session, take it back to your building.

10 Quick Wins FERPA Rule Protect → Verify → Own 30-Day Plan
How to use this tool

This is not a handout — it's a working document. Fill it in during the session. Check the boxes as you make decisions. Take it back to your building. The goal isn't to complete all 10 quick wins. It's to pick one and actually do it.

See It
Get Clear on Current Reality
Quick Wins 1–3
Lead It
Protect Human Judgment
Quick Wins 4–6
Systemize It
Make Good AI Use the Default
Quick Wins 7–10
SEE IT
Quick Wins 1–3

Get Clear on Current Reality

You cannot lead an AI environment you haven't looked at.

1
Take a 10-Minute AI Current Reality Scan
Answer these five questions about what's already happening in your building — before setting a single expectation or adopting a single tool.
2
Know the One Rule — The FERPA Plain-Language Standard
Never put a student's name, ID, grades, behavior record, IEP details, or any identifying information into a general AI tool without a signed data agreement. Say this to your staff this week.
3
Start With the Problem, Not the Tool
Before anyone in your building says "we should get this AI platform" — name the real problem first. Use the filter: does this tool solve a problem we actually have?
⚠ The Most Important Rule in This Entire Document — Write It Down
Never put a student's name, ID, grades, behavior record, IEP details, or any information that identifies a specific child into a general AI tool — unless your school has a signed data agreement with that company.
  • Free ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini = NOT for student data
  • Enterprise versions with signed agreements = potentially compliant — verify first
  • IEP, 504, and disability documentation = never in general AI. Ever.
  • What you CAN put in: your own thinking, general data without names, drafts without student references
LEAD IT
Quick Wins 4–6

Protect Human Judgment

AI will do whatever you tell it. It has no values. No context. No relationships. You do.

4
Decide What Must Stay Human
AI can help you think — it does not own the decision. For evaluating staff, discipline, student support, sensitive family communications, interpreting data, and selecting instructional priorities: AI assists. You decide. Every single time. Equity check: does this tool serve your highest-need students as well as everyone else?
5
Challenge the AI — Five Questions Before You Use Any Output
Don't just generate outputs. Interrogate them. Before using anything AI produces, ask: What might be wrong? What's missing? What assumption is this making? What needs verification? Does this fit what I know about my school?
6
Name One Place AI Doesn't Belong
AI readiness does not mean AI everywhere. What is one leadership moment in your building where human judgment, human relationship, and human presence is the only thing that works?
Quick Win 7 — Your Entire Staff AI Expectation in Three Words
Print this. Put it on your wall. Say it in your next staff meeting.
Protect
Don't enter student-identifying information into general AI tools
Verify
Check the output before you use it — AI is confidently wrong
Own
The human is responsible for the final product — your name goes on it
AI drafts. You decide. Your name goes on it. Not the AI's.
SYSTEMIZE IT
Quick Wins 8–10

Systemize It

You don't need a 40-page policy. You need a few structures that make good AI use the default.

8
Give Staff a Simple AI Expectation
Use the Protect → Verify → Own framework above as the foundation. Take the AI Guidance Starter Pack back to your building — 12 editable templates ready to adapt. Available standalone or inside The Collective Resource Vault.
9
Establish One Repeatable Workflow
Don't learn 15 prompts. Master one workflow. Example: messy meeting notes → AI organizes decisions, action items, owners, deadlines → you verify → you send. AI handled the friction. You handled the judgment.
10
Create an Approved / Ask First / Don't Use System
Fill in the table below for your school. You don't need every tool categorized today — you need the structure. Start with what you know.
✓ Approved
Use within Protect→Verify→Own		 ? Ask First
Leadership/tech review needed		 ✗ Don't Use
Not approved for school work

Fill in what you know right now. This is a living document — it's okay if it's incomplete today.

PLAN
Quick Win 10 · The Most Important One

My One 30-Day Priority

Pick one. Not nine. Which quick win would make the biggest difference in your school right now?

The instruction is simple.

Don't try to implement all 10 quick wins. Pick the one that would make the biggest difference in your school right now — this week, this month. Name it. Own it. Make it specific enough that someone else could hold you accountable to it.

Which quick win? What specifically changes?
Name or role
Specific date
The single most immediate next step — small enough to do by Friday
Coming Up Next

October 7 — The Whole Child Data Picture

Going beyond academics — attendance, behavior, culture, and family data — to see the full story your school's data is telling.

Register for October 7 →
Defining My Way Academy · School Leadership · Ashley Springs · definingmyway.com Power Session #3 · AI Leadership Quick Wins · September 2, 2026