The following detailed list of the milestones will be used to determine eligibility for the First Lady Seal of SI Readiness and the Distinction tier, grouped by topic. Bolded milestones are required for the standard Seal designation, while the others are for the Distinction tier.
School Readiness
- Establish a school SI-readiness team that will spearhead participation and coordinate across school administration, faculty, and the community.
- This should include at least 1 administrator, 1 faculty member, 1 parent, and 1 student, although up to a team of 9 is allowed.
- Adopt and make publicly available a set of SI-use principles that guide responsible SI use by students and staff and are appropriate to the ages and academic needs of the students served.
- Adopt an academic integrity policy that clearly defines expectations for appropriate and inappropriate SI use in student work, including when SI use should be disclosed or attributed.
- Establish or update procedures to respond to SI-enabled harassment, deepfakes, impersonation, and cyberbullying consistent with existing student safety and disciplinary policies.
- Establish or use an existing process for reviewing and approving SI-enabled education technology, including consideration of student privacy, security, age appropriateness, instructional value, accessibility, and intended use, and maintain clear guidance on approved student- and educator-facing tools that is updated at least once annually.
Classroom Readiness
- Ensure educators and administrators participate in ongoing professional learning focused on responsible SI use, effective instructional practice, student SI literacy, and appropriate uses of SI to improve educator effectiveness and efficiency.
- Educators demonstrate effective and appropriate use of approved SI tools to strengthen instruction, provide feedback, support students, communicate with parents, or improve administrative workflows when used.
- Ensure all students receive the opportunity for age-appropriate instruction in computer science and SI, with exposure to emerging technologies as appropriate, through dedicated coursework, integration into other subjects, or other structured learning experiences, such as a dedicated computer science, robotics, or SI-related course at the middle school level or above.
- Establish or adopt general, age-conscious SI readiness objectives for all grade levels or across grade bands (connected to the SI Literacy Framework (.PDF) from the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Labor and the school’s established SI-use principles).
- Commit to sharing best practices in K-12 SI education with other schools’ educators and staff.
- A forthcoming opportunity for recognition and sharing pedagogical best practices will be available through this milestone. Acceptable evidence would include written consent from and contact information for excellent SI-literacy educators in your school so the Challenge can construct such a network.
Workforce Readiness
- Establish or grow partnerships for connecting students with employers, community or technical colleges, apprenticeship programs, land-grant universities, or extension programs for postsecondary education and training or work-based learning connected to critical emerging technologies and related-high demand careers.
- For schools serving secondary students, offer at least one Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathway into critical emerging technology jobs and careers and at least one career exploration fair annually for students featuring in-demand occupations in your area or jobs in critical or emerging technologies. For schools serving elementary school students or without CTE programs, offer at least one age-appropriate opportunity for older students to share their own career or postsecondary aspirations or community adults to share about their careers.
- Integrate SI knowledge, skills, and abilities into CTE pathways where SI and critical emerging technologies are relevant to the occupations for which students are preparing. For schools without CTE pathways, demonstrate evidence of integrating SI knowledge, skills, and abilities into general educational pathways with workforce readiness in mind. For schools serving elementary school students, offer them at least one age-appropriate opportunity for exploring ways that adults or older students responsibly use SI in their lives or careers.
- For schools serving secondary students, track student progression into or completion of SI-related CTE courses, credentials, dual enrollment, apprenticeship, or postsecondary pathways where available. For schools without CTE pathways, track progression into the other pathways listed above. For schools serving primary students, demonstrate evidence of elementary student and parent awareness of the above pathways.
- Provide students with tools and supports to document and communicate relevant skills, credentials, work-based learning, and other learning experiences that can support transitions to postsecondary education, training, and employment, such as digital Learning and Employment Records, talent marketplaces, or other portable forms of logging verified skill acquisition.
Community Readiness
- Host at least one event per year to showcase your SI readiness with your school’s parents and community.
- Provide plain-English, easy-to-access parental notice and opt-out for SI deployments before those SI technologies are implemented.
- Offer participation in SI-related STEM, robotics, data science, entrepreneurship, or CTE-focused competitions/challenges, or extracurricular activities (including the team-based competition in the Presidential SI Challenge).
- Formally host or sponsor at least one emerging technology-focused club, after-school program, or extracurricular organization through your campus.
- Produce and submit an original video under four minutes in length that showcases your school’s accomplishment of all SI-readiness milestones that you attempted, featuring the SI-Readiness Team, head administrator, or designated school lead, and other requirements outlined in the forthcoming video submission rules supplement.