Campfire Session — Communicating with Parents

In this "Communicating with Parents" campfire session, you can learn how to confidently talk with parents about AI in your classroom.

Jacob Edington, Head of Customer Success at Flint

In this Communicating with Parents Flint Campfire Session, we focused on how schools can build clearer, calmer, and more proactive parent communication about AI, and specifically how to explain Flint in a way that addresses common questions (privacy, safety, “is this just ChatGPT?”) while giving parents a tangible way to experience the platform themselves. This session followed an open-discussion format, combining ready-to-share resources with community Q&A about parent AI familiarity, transparency, and practical rollout challenges.

Content covered in this session includes:

• A shift to an open discussion format, prioritizing educator Q&A and real school experiences over a long presentation—aimed at surfacing what parents are actually asking right now and what schools need to communicate more clearly.

• A “starter kit” of parent-facing resources, including Flint FAQs, privacy and security pages, and an existing “AI Communication with Parents” guide with a clear table of contents and reusable language schools can adapt.

• New parent-facing webpage launch, introducing a dedicated Parents page (released that week) designed to give families a credible, “from the source” overview of what Flint is and how it works—supporting schools that want parent messaging to be verifiable beyond internal school communications.

• A new “Flint for Parents” demo workspace, created so parents can explore Flint without being added to a school’s workspace, increasing user counts, or seeing any other parent’s activity.

• Parent 101 learning flow inside the demo workspace, including an “Understanding Flint” activity modeled after teacher/student literacy experiences (parents can ask questions and learn interactively), plus a few sample activities so parents can preview what classroom use may look like.

• Parent AI knowledge is a wide spectrum, shared by educators who have run parent workshops: some parents had never used AI at all, others asked advanced, high-level questions. The session discussed how this variability impacts communication tone and what resources schools need.

• A common parent worry: “AI at home vs. AI at school,” noting that schools may feel confident about controlled classroom use but are concerned about what students do with general-purpose AI tools outside school hours and how Flint’s “support, not answers” positioning helps.

• Transparency requests and the “parent portal” question, including discussion of whether parents should be able to see student conversations with Sparky, assigned activities, or a limited view similar to LMS parent access. The group acknowledged the “blurred line” between educational privacy and parent reassurance, and surfaced it as a valuable product-direction input.

• Moderation + parent communication link, noting that parents seeing how students actually interact with AI (including frustration or inappropriate tone) can prompt better home conversations and reinforce digital citizenship expectations.

• Legal/compliance question on recorded voice, raised around a New Hampshire “right to know” style law requiring explicit consent for each audio/video recording instance—discussed in the context of voice features used in world language learning, with an offer to follow up directly to explore workarounds and compliance-friendly practices.

• A real school challenge: parent demand for “AI fluency,” while teachers are still learning:

  • Schools shared that they have policies and advisory lessons, but teacher-to-parent communication about classroom AI use isn’t consistent yet.
  • The session reinforced that AI literacy plus clear “here’s what we’re teaching and why” messaging helps parents understand safeguards and learning outcomes.

• Next steps and feedback loop, encouraging educators to use the Parents page + demo workspace as “first response” resources, share requests (like parent AI literacy materials) if demand increases, and follow up with Flint for specific policy, consent, or parent-communication scenarios.

Slides from the presentation can be found here.

Introduction • 00:00

• Jacob introduces the session and agenda.

Sharing Flint website resources • 01:14

• Flint provides several resources to aid communication with parents:
  • Flint FAQs: Recently updated to include information on sustainability and infrastructure, serving as a comprehensive resource for common questions from colleagues, students, and parents.
  • Privacy and Security sections on the website: Address concerns regarding student data protection.
  • Parent AI Communication guide: An existing resource available on the website, designed to help initiate dialogue with parents about AI.
  • New parent-specific webpage: Launched recently to offer parents a direct overview of Flint's capabilities, providing verification of information shared by schools.

Parent facing activities on Flint • 05:22

• Jacob shares the Flint for Parents workspace, a dedicated environment allowing parents to:
  • Experience Flint as a student.
  • Ask Sparky questions and learn about Flint's functions and limitations.
  • Review example activities similar to those students encounter.
  • This workspace is separate from school organizations, preventing additional user pollution and ensuring privacy.
  • Parents cannot view activities or chats of other parents or students within this workspace.

Open discussion on communicating with parents • 07:38

• A teacher shared how their Upper school (grades 9-12) incorporates AI literacy through advisory periods.
  • Teachers use provided scripts and an AI policy shared with students.
  • A gap exists in communicating the benefits of AI use to parents, as teachers are also still learning.
• Recommendations for communicating with parents
  • Implement AI literacy programs for students, ideally starting at a younger age (e.g., middle school or fifth grade) to establish a baseline.
  • Utilize Flint's customizable AI literacy resources, which can be adapted for different age groups.
  • Consider creating a one-page summary for parents outlining the school's AI policy and expectations for students.
• Parental consent for recordings:
  • A new parental right-to-know law in New Hampshire requires explicit consent for voice/video recording.
  • Flint allows teachers to enable voice-to-text or voice recording at the activity level for specific purposes, such as World Language instruction pronunciation practice.
  • This is the only instance of recording within Flint, as there is no video recording.
• Jacob Edington offered to collaborate directly with schools facing this challenge to find solutions or workarounds.

Conclusion • 33:00

• To learn more, folks can go to the Campfire Calendar.

What to watch next:

• [**S'more Info Session — Integrating Digital Math Tools**
  Watch this S'more Info Session on Integrating Digital Math Tools with Flint and learn how to use AI alongside Desmos, GeoGebra, and other platforms to reduce technical barriers, support student learning, and keep the focus on mathematical thinking.](/content/webinars/smore-info-session-integrating-digital-math-tools/index.html)
• [**Campfire Session — AI Policy 2.0**
  Learn how leading schools are updating AI policies for the age of Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and embedded AI. Explore practical strategies for academic integrity, AI literacy, assessment design, student privacy, and responsible AI use in K–12 classrooms.](/content/webinars/ai-policy-2-0/index.html)
• [**S'more Info Session — Designing Exit Tickets**
  Watch this S'more Info Session on Designing Exit Tickets with Flint and learn how to create AI-powered formative assessments, gather real-time student data, identify misconceptions, and generate personalized follow-up activities to improve classroom instruction.](/content/webinars/smore-info-session-designing-exit-tickets/index.html)