For many families, navigating their student’s individualized education plan (IEP) is confusing, isolating, and full of bureaucratic obstacles. But in San José and San Francisco, a new approach is flipping the script. 

As I highlighted in a previous blog post, the Burnes Center for Social Change and Innovate Public Schools are working with parents in California to co-design an AI-powered tool designed to help families to overcome the barriers they face when engaging with their child’s IEP. 

The project is not only building technology, but also training parent leaders and recruiting and organizing a growing base of engaged families to make sure other parents can use it too. The result isn’t just better technology, but stronger parent leadership.

Training Parent Leaders

To make sure this tool was not just another top-down solution, the project started by training parent leaders — known as Parent Leader Navigators — so that they could explain the technology and support other families.

Our first focus groups back in March and April underscored what we already knew: families need support not just in accessing a tool, but in feeling confident and capable when advocating for their children. 

In July, we held our first training workshop for Parent Leader Navigators, a 90-minute, interactive session designed to demystify the AI that powers the tool. The workshop included:

• An introduction to generative AI: We walked through what AI is (and isn’t), how it is used in this project and how sensitive information is protected when using the tool. 

• Role-play practice: Parent leaders practiced explaining the tool and guiding them through how to use it.

• Resource packets: Each participant received bilingual reference sheets and “cheat sheets” they could take home and use as they began supporting others.

Parents expressed excitement in starting the recruitment of other parents in the use of the tool and that this was the first time they had been asked to be co-designers of a technology.

Recruitment and Growing Engagement

Once the first cohort of Parent Leader Navigators was trained, they began taking the tool into their communities, meeting families where they are outside schools, at community centers, and at local events.

Parallel to training, the team at Innovate Public Schools has been laying the groundwork for broader outreach. Recruitment efforts have been community-led from the start, recognizing that trust and cultural relevance are essential for meaningful participation.

Parent Leader Navigators are already bringing this work to life in neighborhoods across San José and San Francisco. They are meeting families outside schools, visiting community centers, and joining local events and fairs to spread the word. So far, we have introduced hundreds of people to the tool through talks, workshops, and presentations (350 people, to be exact), but it is the impact of parent leadership that is most striking. Just last week, one of the Navigators requested that her child’s school provide a Spanish translation of their IEP. 

While she was initially told that a translation had been requested but would take time, the school also directed her to the AIEP tool for translation. For us, this was a milestone moment, proof that the tool is beginning to shift how schools respond to families’ needs more efficiently. Schools are organically recognizing the value of the tool and how it can become a bridge to better collaborate and support parents.

On September 20, 2025, we had the opportunity to share a demo of the tool and participate in a parent-led panel at The Jose Arenas Parent Leadership Program Institute. The session was well attended, and the reflections from parents underscored the power of developing technology with community at the center. At its heart, this project is about co-creation with parents. Our university team has been guided every step of the way by mothers who bring both expertise and lived experience, and for that we are deeply grateful.

To close the panel, we emphasized that the collaboration was born from a shared vision, in which technological innovation can and should serve to expand access to public services. Furthermore, its design and use can be defined by everyone, not reserved only for a few. And, above all, it was born from the conviction that every student has the right to a quality public education.

Launching the Civic and Democratic AI Course

But the availability of technology alone isn’t enough. To make sure families feel confident using AI responsibly, the team also designed a short WhatsApp-based course to build AI literacy. 

While the AIEP tool is designed for a specific challenge, supporting families with IEPs, we know that building AI literacy more broadly is just as important. That’s why my colleagues at the Burnes Center, Beth Noveck and Anirudh Dinesh have designed the Civic and Democratic AI course to accompany the tool: a lightweight learning series designed to meet parents where they are. The course consists of eight short modules delivered in multiple languages via WhatsApp, each combining explainer videos (5 minutes each) on core AI concepts and resource links to dig deeper. The course provides practical guidance for how communities can use AI to understand their government, access their rights, and organize for change.

The idea is for the WhatsApp format to make the course accessible. Parents can learn on their commute or in a break moment. Importantly, the course is not just about understanding AI, but about building confidence: recognizing that families have the right to ask questions, to build confidence in using AI tools responsibly and with awareness in order to engage deeper in their children’s education.

Next Steps: Scaling Outreach and Sharing Lessons Learned

The AIEP project is about supporting families. We are especially mindful that adoption by schools and teachers will be an important next step. Families can benefit enormously from the tool, but its impact will be greater if schools also see it as a resource that helps build trust and strengthens collaboration with parents. As we continue to expand recruitment and outreach efforts, over the next few months, we will:

• Deploy the Civic and Democratic AI course.

• Publish our learnings in the forthcoming Community-Centered AI Playbook, so others can adapt and build on this model.

• Evaluate metrics of use and collect user testimonies

The way we design technology matters. When approached with care, it can make interactions with public systems clearer, fairer, and less overwhelming. What we have learned is that tools can open doors to access and advocacy, but it is human connection and networks of support that give those tools meaning. That is where we see the most powerful change taking shape, and that is where we believe it is worth investing our energy.