AI and Homework: Questions Parents Can Ask Their Child

For one night's homework, you'll usually learn most from the teacher's rule. A teacher might allow AI for one subject's homework and not another's, or give a rule such as “use AI to check your answers, not to write them”, even on homework that isn't marked.

The tools people mean by AI here are called generative AI: apps such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot that write text, answer questions or make images from a typed request. For Catholic or independent schools, you can ask which policy applies.

Your child's school also has expectations about academic integrity: doing schoolwork honestly and saying where help came from. The Department's guidance on academic integrity gives teachers several options, from supervised work without a computer to tasks where students can use AI if they say how.

Using AI isn't the same as cheating. The Department's guidance even gives teachers the example of encouraging students to copy a draft into an AI tool “to ask for specific suggestions about how they can be improved”. So the conversation can start from the homework, not the tool. Sitting with those history answers, you might ask your child to show you how they did them. Talking about something they made can feel easier than being asked whether they followed a rule, and your child may know things about these apps that you don't.

A few questions that can get the conversation going:

• Can you show me what you typed? That can show whether they asked for an explanation or answers.
• Which part did you work out yourself? Your child gets to point to their own thinking first.
• Did it get anything wrong, and how did you check? AI answers can be wrong, and checking them against reliable sources, such as class notes or a textbook, is a skill the Department's guidance suggests teaching.
• Can you tell me the main idea without looking? Saying it out loud in their own words is something AI can't do for them.
• What has your teacher said about AI for this subject? Your child may know the rule already, or realise they don't.
• Did you put anything personal into it? A person's name or a photo of someone at school can reveal personal information.

You're not looking for a verdict on one piece of homework. Over a few weeks, you can notice whether your child talks about the work easily in their own words, or stays close to what the screen said. That may help you decide what to ask next.

Your child's teacher is the person to ask when the rule for a task isn't clear, and a short message through the school's usual channel can be a place to start. You might get in touch when a task sheet doesn't mention AI and your child isn't sure, or when the two of you read the rule differently.

It's also worth raising when AI has started doing most of the homework in one subject because the topic isn't making sense. The teacher can help identify the gap and may know of help the school offers, such as a homework club or study support, so you can ask what's available. If you're not sure who to contact, the year level coordinator may be able to point you to the right person.

If a teacher has raised a concern about a piece of work, you can ask what the rule for that task was, how the school handles it under its policy and how your child can show how they worked, such as with drafts or by talking the teacher through it.

A few questions about one piece of homework, asked often enough that they feel ordinary, can keep you close to how your child is learning and give them the chance to explain their own thinking. Next time history is done in ten minutes, you'll know what to ask.

Will the school ask me before my child uses an AI tool at school?

Sometimes. A government school must get your opt-in consent before using an AI tool that needs more personal information than a school email address and a password to sign up. Where registration needs no personal information, schools should offer students an opt-out. The policy also encourages schools to tell families how the tool will be used.

Is my child old enough to use AI tools?

It depends on the tool. Its terms of use can set a minimum age, and the Department requires schools to follow a tool's terms when they use it. For home use, you can check ChatGPT's terms,Gemini's account requirements orCopilot's terms.

What changes when my child starts VCE?

Work that counts towards VCE results also comes under the rules of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), which runs the VCE. Its handbook says “Unattributed or disallowed use of genAI in assessment may be a breach of academic integrity.” Our guide to using AI in VCE schoolwork, written for students, explains how that works for each assessed task.

We checked these official sources on 6 November 2026.