Broward County Public Schools is leading the charge in AI with the largest K12 integration of Microsoft Copilot in the world. One leader explains how they did it.
The district first announced the historic districtwide deployment in June. The initiative comes more than two years after the district initially blocked ChatGPT on all district-owned devices.
Manuel Castañeda, the district’s executive director of analytics and intelligence, said that AI has earned its place in K12 education. “We realized that as an educational institution, we need to ensure that our students and staff can leverage it,” he says.
Much of the initial hesitancy stemmed from leaders’ concerns about protecting student data, which is what ultimately led them to choose Microsoft Copilot.
“We are firmly ensconced in the Microsoft environment right now,” Castañeda says. “Although teachers and staff are free to try other tools, they have to constantly be worried about exposing any data.”
Copilot has access to every file and document within the district’s network, creating a secure environment where teachers can operate without fear.
“It reassures us that we’re not going to be facing any huge security issues,” he says. “They [cybercriminals] would have to basically hack Microsoft, which I guess could happen, but it doesn’t.”
The logistics
Microsoft didn’t offer schools a discount initially. “Microsoft was charging us like everybody else, full freight,” he says.
Castañeda says the biggest hurdle in negotiating with the company was convincing them Broward’s initiative was a “monumental splash” for K12.
Broward County got 300 licenses to experiment with the technology, knowing it couldn’t expand under the current terms due to affordability. It wasn’t until the district’s CIO persuaded Microsoft to lower costs that Broward was able to purchase licenses for districtwide use.
“He told them, ‘Do you want to be the leader? You need to put your skin in the game.’ And the deal that this district negotiated for Copilot—20,000 premium licenses—was monumental as far as the logistics behind it,” Castañeda explains.
To date, the district has deployed 6,000 licenses to district staff, technical colleges and its full-time education centers.
“In a few weeks, we’re deploying to the high schools, and then in December, we’re deploying to the middle and elementary schools,” he says.
Teachers are already experimenting with ways to embed AI into their instruction, he adds. One teacher, for instance, uses Copilot to design lessons that meet the state’s objectives and curriculum standards.
“The teacher was posting about how great it was, because they were trying to find a different way to teach, and this provided an easy way to do it once the teacher refined it and adjusted it to fit her lesson,” he says. “That’s what I’m hoping AI does for education.”
The district also relies on its AI task force, a coalition of school practitioners who are responsible for creating AI guardrails and policy. The group is currently piloting and reviewing Microsoft Copilot Chat, an AI-powered assistant designed for students ages 13-plus.
“We’re going slow, and then once these guardrails are set, we’ll see how it aligns to our policy,” he says.
Advice for leaders
Broward County’s innovations show districts big and small how AI can benefit public education. Castañeda encourages IT leaders to present superintendents with clear plans for AI.
“You need to have a set of objectives you want to achieve, and you want to have a plan for how AI can help to achieve them,” he says.
For example, school districts can layer AI into HVAC systems to save money and energy.
He also recommends sticking to one foundational AI engine as not every platform is compatible.
“Choose one that aligns best with your current infrastructure,” he says. “In other words, if you have Google Chromebooks and you’ve been using Google Classroom, then Gemini might be a good fit because it can already leverage all of that.”
“Try to align your infrastructure to your foundational AI tool to get the most immediate return on investment.”
More from DA: Shift happens: designing student-centered classrooms with AI and tech
