Many CT schools pick the same artificial intelligence platform

New Haven Public Schools is joining more than 35 school districts in Connecticut in using the artificial intelligence platform MagicSchool, reflecting how rapidly AI is becoming part of everyday classroom instruction and learning across the state.

From teachers using the program to help with lesson planning to students uploading their essays to get feedback from the program’s AI tool, Connecticut has been a state that a MagicSchool official called “an early and active adopter” of the platform. 

MagicSchool, which offers 80 tools for teachers and more than 50 for students, aims “to support teaching and learning,” according to its website. For New Haven, that the AI platform can translate learning materials into 98 different languages was a major reason why the district chose to move forward with the platform. 

“As you know in New Haven, we pride ourselves on serving a diverse group of learners, but also a multilingual population,” said Keisha Redd-Hannans, assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction and assessment, at a Monday school board meeting. “So to be able to meet their needs in the classroom is critically important for all of our success.” 

New Haven chose MagicSchool after eight of its schools piloted an AI program from September to December. Four schools tested MagicSchool, while another four used a different platform. This pilot period led the district’s AI committee, which is made up of school board members, administrators, IT staff members and teachers, to recommend going with MagicSchool.

For the upcoming school year, the program will cost the district $109,320, according to the district’s financial documents.

“If teachers are saying this is allowing them to not only increase rigor, not only personalize learning for students, but also to save time, that’s a win,” Redd-Hannans said. 

CT Insider contacted school districts across the state that have been using MagicSchool to understand why they selected this AI platform for both their students and teachers to use. 

Lebanon Public Schools was one of seven school districts that participated in a state AI Pilot Program, where from January to June 2025, they used “state-approved AI tools in the classroom,” according to a Connecticut Department of Education press release. One of the tools that the state allowed was MagicSchool. 

“As a district, we began exploring the use of artificial intelligence during the 2024-25 school year,” said Andrew Gonzalez, superintendent of the district. “Rather than rushing into implementation, we intentionally piloted MagicSchool AI with a small group of educators to better understand its instructional value, its safeguards, and how it could support our strategic priorities. That deliberate approach positioned Lebanon Public Schools to become one of Connecticut’s AI pilot districts and allowed us to expand implementation with confidence.”

The district continued with MagicSchool due to various reasons, said Chad Johnson, principal of Lebanon Middle School. Some of the tools that enticed district officials to move forward with the platform include MagicSchool’s education-focused AI assistant, Raina, a teacher dashboard where they can monitor how their students are interacting with the system in real time and the teacher-created chatbots that students can use. 

“AI has dramatically reduced the amount of time required to create differentiated, student-centered lessons, allowing teachers to spend more time focusing on instruction and student relationships rather than preparation,” Johnson said. “As a result of this work, the middle school increased the amount of time our students with disabilities spend with their non-disabled peers from approximately 35% to 84%.”

For Stratford Public Schools, teachers began using MagicSchool at the beginning of the 2025-26 school year. Students were able to access the platform in March after taking digital citizenship and AI literacy lessons, said Michelle Eckler, director of instructional technology, and Matthew Rivers, director of operational technology, in a joint statement. 

The district selected MagicSchool because it made using AI for the teachers for educational purposes easier and it exposed students to proper ways to use these tools “with intense guardrails in place,” they said. 

“We are able to create student rooms where the bot is controlled by what the teacher wants students using it for,” Eckler and Rivers said. “This allows us to better teach our students AI literacy and AI prompting — showing them how it works and what they can do with it in a safe and effective environment.”

In Norwalk, the platform was selected to be used starting in the 2023-24 school year as a way to help teachers by saving time when building rubrics and creating lesson plans, said Emily Morgan, the district’s media relations specialist. 

“The platform is primarily utilized by educators, instructional specialists, and digital learning coaches across our schools to streamline administrative tasks, differentiate instruction for diverse learning needs, and spark instructional creativity,” she said. 

Connecticut school district officials said they want to ensure the AI tools they expose students and staff to are safe and that all their data is kept private. 

“We selected MagicSchool because it was built specifically for K-12 schools, meets the Connecticut student data privacy requirements, and provides educators with practical AI tools while giving the district appropriate administrative oversight,” said Doug Couture, director of technology systems and programs for South Windsor Public Schools. 

According to MagicSchool’s website, how students interact with the AI tools are stored only for “authorized educators and administrators” to view and the platform is “designed to support” Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act-aligned use in schools and districts. This federal law protects the privacy of student education records.

“MagicSchool does not sell or share student conversation data for advertising and does not allow it to be used to train external AI model,” the website says. 

For Stratford, that MagicSchool signed the Connecticut Student Data Privacy Pledge was something district officials looked for when selecting an AI program, Eckler and Rivers said. This pledge is a formal commitment by an educational technology provider that their terms aligns with state laws when it comes to protecting student data, according to the state’s Department of Administrative Services. 

“It’s actually difficult to abuse MagicSchool because it has so many protections and fail-safes in place,” the two said in a statement.

Many Connecticut school districts have adopted AI policies and ensure students are taught about the right and wrong ways to use these tools. 

In Newington, student AI education begins when they are in kindergarten. The district said it began using MagicSchool in the spring of 2023 after conducting an 18-month-long evaluation and vetting process to find the right AI platform to use. 

“Students are systematically taught the ethical implications of AI, the importance of academic integrity and how to critically evaluate AI-generated outputs,” said John Salerno, director of educational technology for Newington Public Schools. 

Couture said South Windsor’s users can only access MagicSchool through their school-sponsored Gmail accounts. Through the district’s agreement with the platform, administrators and teachers can oversee how students are using the tools. 

“All users are expected to follow the district’s acceptable use policy,” he added. 

While MagicSchool is difficult to misuse, Stratford educators regularly monitor how the tools are used by students, Eckler and Rivers said. The district recently started using an internet monitoring and filtering system. 

This system “will redirect students who try to ask inappropriate or concerning questions to an AI platform to our monitoring system, which can then flag that student and allow us to bring in our district support team if needed,” Eckler and Rivers said. 

“We are always talking about new ways to support our staff and students via professional learning and different lessons/course work on digital and AI literacy,” they added.