The Complete Guide to Using AI in the Education Industry in Chesapeake in 2025

Chesapeake schools must treat AI as an urgent instructional and workforce priority in 2025: the White House's executive order establishes a Task Force, a Presidential AI Challenge, and clear timelines (many actions directed within 90–120 days) to expand K–12 AI resources and prioritize teacher training, while the U.S. Department of Education's July 22, 2025 guidance explains how AI can be used responsibly across instruction, tutoring, and grant-funded programs; at the same time Virginia has advanced its own approach (Gov.

Youngkin's EO 30 and follow-up summits), signaling that local districts will decide how federal momentum becomes classroom practice in Chesapeake. The practical “so what?” is concrete: districts that invest now in targeted professional development and short, applied programs - such as Nucamp's 15‑week AI Essentials for Work - will be ready to use AI for personalized learning, reduced administrative load, and stronger college-career pathways.

Read the White House Executive Order on AI in Education, review the U.S. Department of Education guidance on AI use in schools, or explore the Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus and course details for practical professional development options.

Program details: AI Essentials for Work - Length: 15 Weeks; Focus: Practical AI skills, prompt writing, and workplace applications; Cost (early bird): $3,582.

For the full syllabus and curriculum, see the Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus.

“Artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionize education and support improved outcomes for learners,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.

In 2025 AI's role in Virginia classrooms is both practical and policy-driven: state leadership (Governor Youngkin's Executive Order 30 and VDOE's AI Advisory Committee) has pushed tools, ethics guidance, and teacher supports so districts can move from question to classroom practice, while on-the-ground adoption and training are rising - educator use of generative AI climbed from 51% to 67% in recent school years and Virginia piloted targeted PD such as fall 2024 Generative AI teacher workshops (360 participants) and the VASS‑backed “Year of Learning” to support 75 school systems; the result is a dual mandate to expand AI literacy and protect privacy so teachers can safely use AI to personalize instruction, reduce routine workload, and deepen higher‑order tasks.

Local leaders should treat VDOE guidance as the framework for district AI policies and pair it with applied teacher training so classrooms realize the “so what?” - AI that returns time to teachers for one‑on‑one instruction and critical thinking scaffolds rather than replacing pedagogy (see VDOE's Educational Technology resources and reporting from Virginia Tech on classroom training and tools).

“Early exposure to AI could allow students to build foundational digital literacy.” - Andrew Katz, Virginia Tech Department of Engineering Education

Virginia's 2025 AI rollout is measurable: VDOE-led Generative AI teacher training reached 360 educators in fall 2024, Governor Youngkin's Executive Order 30 prompted statewide AI guidance and an AI Advisory Committee, and the VASS “Year of Learning” aims to ready roughly 75 school systems for generative AI integration - while Advanced Learning Partnerships notes about 66 divisions building Gen‑AI readiness resources - creating both PD scale and district-level momentum (Virginia Department of Education Educational Technology & AI initiatives - VDOE, https://www.doe.virginia.gov/programs-services/school-operations-support-services/technology-in-education; VDOE Virginia Education Update, April 25, 2025 - VDOE newsletter, https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/VADOE/bulletins/3dd3fb5; VASS Gen AI Year of Learning cohort - Advanced Learning Partnerships, https://alplearn.com/cohort/vass-gen-ai-year-of-learning/).

Workforce signals are clear: Virginia's Registered Teacher Apprenticeship work has engaged 90+ aspiring educators to date, with 50 divisions and 11 educator‑preparation partners committed to bring roughly 170 more apprentices into the pipeline for 2025–26 - a concrete capacity lift that lets Chesapeake districts source trained candidates and on‑ramp AI PD quickly.

So what? These combined counts - hundreds of trained teachers, dozens of engaged divisions, and growing apprenticeship slots - mean Chesapeake can move from policy to classroom at regional scale by partnering with existing VDOE and VASS cohorts rather than building PD from scratch.

"I believe education is the most powerful tool to change a student's life and open doors to the future..." - Brandon Monk, Virginia Board of Education member

Virginia's 2024–2029 Educational Technology Plan - now part of the State Board's Comprehensive Plan - sets a clear compliance and implementation pathway that directly affects Chesapeake: local division technology plans must be reviewed and revised alongside the division comprehensive plan, align with state standards, and be reported in the SOQ compliance collection, so Chesapeake leaders should treat the state plan as the baseline for district AI policy and procurement (VDOE 2024–2029 Educational Technology Plan and guidance).

The plan explicitly incorporates assistive technology requirements and points schools to VATTS and AIM‑VA resources to ensure students with IEPs get appropriate AT services and devices - critical when adopting AI tools that must be evaluated for accessibility and individualized supports (VDOE Assistive Technology (VATTS and AIM‑VA) resources).

Practical, compliance-minded steps for Chesapeake include updating acceptable-use policies and filtering per §22.1-70.2, embedding AT consideration into IEP workflows, and implementing FERPA‑aware safeguards such as redaction workflows and role-based access when deploying AI systems (FERPA-compliant AI redaction workflows for K–12 schools) - so what: aligning local plans now preserves access to state supports and reduces legal and equity risk as AI tools enter classrooms.

Aligning local plans now preserves access to state supports and reduces legal and equity risk as AI tools enter classrooms.

Chesapeake classrooms are already moving from pilots to practical routines: district teams can pair VDOE-aligned grants and cohort support with concrete privacy and teacher‑training measures - start by deploying FERPA-compliant AI redaction workflows for Chesapeake schools and role‑based access controls for behavior and assessment data so tutors and grading models run on de‑identified inputs; next, lean on VDOE AI initiatives and resources for accessibility and procurement decisions so assistive AI supports (text simplifiers, speech‑to‑text) reach students with IEPs.

Classroom examples that scale: teachers using AI to generate iterative writing feedback and scaffolded prompts for diverse learners, career‑pathway instructors embedding short AI literacy modules into projects, and admin teams automating routine reporting while preserving audit trails - practical steps that keep educators in the loop and protect student privacy as AI shifts from experiment to everyday practice (AI literacy integration in Chesapeake classrooms).

The AI in Education Workshop 2025 is a practical, teacher-first PD offering that connects Chesapeake educators directly to Virginia's statewide AI training ecosystem: a free, teacher‑hosted two‑day session (July 23–24, 2025) that begins at 10:00 a.m.

and centers on classroom‑ready prompts, assessment strategies, and ethical safeguards so teachers leave with ready-to-use lesson moves rather than abstract theory - crucially, this workshop dovetails with the Virginia Department of Education generative AI teacher training and the Germanna community‑college partnership that trained 360 educators in fall 2024, creating an immediate pathway to vetted, VDOE-aligned resources and cohort support.

Registering for these workshops or joining VDOE cohorts lets Chesapeake districts accelerate safe pilots and teacher-led curriculum design this fall, meaning the “so what?” is tangible: one two‑day workshop can seed multiple classroom pilots and shortcut months of trial‑and‑error when districts adopt AI tools.

Learn more about the state's Generative AI teacher training and resources at the Virginia Department of Education generative AI resources and find the July workshop details and registration through the VEA Teaching & Learning newsletter and July workshop registration.

AI in Chesapeake classrooms and central office shifts routine work into actionable time for teachers and leaders: classroom teachers use generative models to draft differentiated lesson plans, produce scaffolded writing feedback and formative quizzes, and pre‑teach targeted mini‑lessons while adaptive tutors deliver extra practice; instructional coaches and assessment teams use AI‑powered item banks and automated item analysis to quickly identify student groups needing reteaching, and admin teams automate reporting, attendance‑pattern flags, IEP draft suggestions, and even routine communications to reclaim hours each week.

Local CTIOs emphasize pragmatism - technology should remove paperwork, not judgment - so districts pair pilots with clear human‑in‑the‑loop workflows and privacy controls.

For practical playbooks and educator perspectives see Chesapeake CTIO Jeff Faust on assessment and AI and a Third Space Learning practitioner overview of AI use cases in US schools; the “so what” is concrete: when AI handles the first pass of grading and data triage, teachers gain focused time for one‑on‑one instruction and richer PLC conversations that improve learning outcomes.

“We have to get teachers able to stop celebrating what they taught and instead focused on what the students learned.” - Dr. Jeff Faust, Chief Technology Innovation Officer, Chesapeake Public Schools

Chesapeake leaders should move from principles to policies now: translate VDOE requirements and federal privacy law into four concrete actions - revise acceptable‑use policies and procurements to require FERPA/COPPA clauses and vendor data‑use limits, deploy role‑based access plus FERPA‑compliant redaction workflows for behavioral and assessment data, mandate human‑in‑the‑loop rules for grading and high‑stakes decisions, and schedule regular staff FERPA and incident‑response training tied to documented audits - so what: divisions that do this protect student privacy and preserve eligibility for state/federal supports while avoiding costly investigations or funding risk.

Use VDOE guidance and assurance timelines (see the VDOE Assurance of Compliance and AI initiatives April 25, 2025 update) as the baseline, map recommended controls to a FERPA compliance checklist (Bright Defense's FERPA compliance checklist), and consult curated state guidance inventories to compare peer policies and vendor language (State AI Guidance for K12 Schools).

Start by updating contracts and AUPs, appointing an AI governance lead, and running a one‑semester vendor‑vetting sprint with clear pass/fail privacy criteria so classrooms can safely pilot AI without exposing education records.

“We have to get teachers able to stop celebrating what they taught and instead focused on what the students learned.” - Dr. Jeff Faust, Chief Technology Innovation Officer, Chesapeake Public Schools

Chesapeake's near‑term workforce strategy should pair aggressive, applied teacher professional development with paid apprenticeship pipelines and expanding cyber CTE so the division both grows and retains talent: Virginia's Registered Teacher Apprenticeship (launched 2023) has engaged 90+ aspiring educators to date and - importantly - is expanding with 50 school divisions and 11 educator‑prep partners committed to prepare roughly 170 paid teacher apprentices for 2025–26, while VDOE‑backed Generative AI teacher training reached 360 educators in fall 2024 and statewide cohorts (VASS “Year of Learning”) aim to ready dozens of divisions for classroom AI use, creating immediate upskilling scale that Chesapeake can tap into rather than build from scratch (see the VDOE April 25, 2025 update and the VASS Gen‑AI cohort).

Combine those pipelines with local CTE/cyber programs and lab schools highlighted by VSBA (SmithTech, AI@CPS, county cybersecurity certifications) and the “so what?” is clear: paid apprenticeships plus targeted AI PD let Chesapeake convert paraprofessionals and high‑school CTE completers into classroom‑ready, tech‑literate educators (often on a living‑wage apprenticeship), while cyber pathways and industry certs (CompTIA, Virginia Cyber Range examples) supply critical IT and cybersecurity staff to protect student data as AI expands in schools.

Conclusion: Next steps for Chesapeake schools in 2025 - act now to convert state momentum into safe, classroom-ready practice by aligning division plans, securing privacy compliance, and scaling applied PD: (1) document alignment with VDOE guidance and complete any required assurances (see the VDOE April 25, 2025 guidance on AI and FERPA assurances); (2) lock down FERPA‑aware controls - role‑based access, vendor data‑use limits, and redaction workflows - using VDOE student‑records guidance (VDOE Student Records FERPA guidance and resources); and (3) fast‑track teacher readiness with short, applied cohorts so pilots start this semester rather than next year - for example, Nucamp's practical AI Essentials for Work is a 15‑week applied program teaching prompt writing and workplace AI skills (early‑bird cost: $3,582) to equip staff for classroom and admin use (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus (15-week applied program)).

The so‑what is concrete: aligning policy and investing in hands‑on PD preserves eligibility for state supports, reduces legal and equity risk as tools scale, and returns teacher time to instruction by safely automating routine tasks.