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AI in schools and student data: what to check
Short answer
A school can start working with AI on teachers' preparation of materials, without passing on any student data. If a tool is to analyse pupils' work, adapt tasks to them or record their activity, the school assesses that processing with its data protection officer before buying. At Syntalith team training costs from €1,150 net a day. With 10 people each saving 1 hour a week, it pays back in 0.9 months after licence costs.
- net for implementation for a team of up to 10 people, paid once
- from €1,150
- from start to work of the entire team
- 2 weeks
- after this time, we measure the effect on the same tasks
- 30 days
- conversation with an engineer and a written plan within 2 business days
- €0
We belong to the OpenAI and Anthropic partner programmes and learn through their official courses. What this means ↓
Author: Syntalith · 3 min read
Statistics
Schools and AI: statistics 2026
0.9 mo.
payback of a €1,150 training at 10 people saving 1 hour a week each: €1,511 of time regained, €178 of licences a month. Scenario.
63.8%
According to Eurostat (2025), 63.8% of people aged 16 to 24 in the EU used generative AI tools in the previous 3 months.
Source: Eurostat, 64% of 16-24-year-olds used AI in 2025 (2025) ↗
39.3%
According to Eurostat (2025), 39.3% of people aged 16 to 24 in the EU used generative AI tools for formal education.
Source: Eurostat, 64% of 16-24-year-olds used AI in 2025 (2025) ↗
48.8%
According to Eurostat (2025), 48.8% of EU enterprises that considered AI and did not use it named concerns about data protection and privacy.
84%
According to the European Commission (2025), 84% of Europeans think AI at work needs careful management to protect privacy and ensure transparency.
Source: European Commission, Special Eurobarometer 554 (2025) ↗
Figures checked: 22 October 2026
Swapping a name for „pupil A” is not enough
A teacher wants to simplify an instruction for a pupil. They remove the name from the description but leave the class, a rare illness and details of an incident on a school trip. Anyone who knows the school will still recognise the child, so the material is not anonymous.
Writing a simpler instruction does not need the story of a specific child. A description of the expected language level and the content of the task are enough. In the workshop teachers practise exactly this: preparing material, checking the answers and recognising information that should never go into the tool. Children's accounts, grading or profiling needs are a separate scope with a separate legal assessment.
- 01Teachers' materialsno student data, on the teacher's own content
- 02Pupils' workan assessment of the legal basis and the recipients
- 03Children's accounts and activityretention, administrator access, ending the contract
- What reaches the vendor and where it is stored
- Separately: the file, the chat history and connected apps
- The retention period and how data are deleted
- The terms for the plan being bought and for ending its use
What it costs and when it pays back
- Time saved
- 10 people × 1 h a week × 4.33 = 43.3 h
- Value of that time
- €1,511
- Licences
- $200 (€178)
- Left after licences
- €1,333 a month
Payback of a €1,150 training
0.9 months
The hours saved are the scenario's assumption, which we check by timing the tasks before the training and after 30 days. €34.90 an hour is the EU average hourly labour cost for 2025 according to Eurostat. Claude Team licences at $20 per person a month, at the ECB rate of 1.1205 USD per euro on 22 October 2026.
We measure the hours in the scenario before the training and after 30 days, on the same team tasks. If after a month checking AI texts takes as long as writing from scratch, we change the exercises or the scope of the tool.
According to Eurostat (2025), 63.8% of people aged 16 to 24 in the EU used generative AI tools, so pupils will meet these tools anyway. The school decides which tools it uses itself, and with which data.
„We do not train on the data” does not answer everything
A vendor's statement that it does not train on the data does not answer the questions about retention or administrator access. The school and its data protection officer assess the legal basis, the duty to inform and the need for an impact assessment. Poland's data protection authority UODO points out that this requirement depends on the likelihood of a high risk to people (UODO on impact assessments). A missing answer about deleting files stays an open issue despite a general statement of GDPR compliance. The relationship with a processor is covered in the guide to the GDPR and DPAs, and the budget for the first step in the plan for AI in schools.
Teachers prepare materials
a workshop with no student data
from €1,150 a day
The tool is to read pupils' work
an assessment of processing with the DPO before buying
on the school's side
Children's accounts and grading
a separate project with an impact assessment
priced after an analysis
Where to start
The school names the approved tool and the person who reviews the materials. The first task can be improving an instruction and checking the answer key on an invented example. For the call, a description of the teachers' planned work is enough, with no special needs statements, register or work signed by children. We run the workshop as part of team training. For the free analysis, a description of one task the team does every week and of the tools it uses is enough. You get the written training programme within 2 working days.
„I already use AI.”
Your people too. Just no rules.
From our conversations with companies
5 na 10 employees paste sensitive data into private AI accounts: contracts, invoices, customer data.
In ESET survey (2026)
1 na 10 admits this in the survey.
Customer data pasted into a private AI account without an data processing agreement is a violation of the GDPR.
Don't worry, we won't tell anyone :)
What do we see in companies that "already use"
- Only ChatGPT or Claude accounts, without plugins, skills, integrations and MCP servers with company tools.
- Company programs are not connected to AI. People still click through systems and Excel, and enter chat data manually.
- Lack of company standards: everyone writes instructions in their own way, no one shares what works.
- No rules for personal data, GDPR and company secrets.
- No limits and no visibility: no one knows who uses AI, how much and for what.
62% Polish employees use AI at work · 27% companies have written rules for working with AI.
Source: ESET and DAGMA, Cyberportrait of Polish business 2026 (March 2026, 1,026 people) ↗
ChatGPT or Claude space review
Accounts, permissions, rules for working with data and 5 tasks set for the team. 1 day.
€450 net
Company accounts, rules of working with data and team training in 2 weeks, from €1,150 net.View implementation for the team →
„Is my data safe?”
Yes. You choose where they go: from your company account to the model on your server.
00Employee's private account
Customer and company data ends up in an account that the company cannot see or control. There is no data processing agreement, so it is a violation of the GDPR. When an employee leaves, the chat history goes with them.
01ChatGPT or Claude corporate account
The provider does not use your data to train models. A copy of the queries remains in his logs for up to 30 days.
02API with zero retention (ZDR)
The provider processes the request and does not save anything. It requires his consent, we prepare the application together.
03Processing in the EU
Queries are counted and stored in Europe: OpenAI in the EU region, Claude via clouds with the EU region.
04Model at your place
The open model runs on your server or in your cloud in the EU. The data does not go outside the company.
What we do with every implementation
- Confidentiality agreement and data processing agreement before we receive any data.
- You choose the cases for the prototype and we anonymize them upon request.
- The data stays in the EU and we delete it after the test.
- Corporate accounts with an administrator on your side.
When data cannot leave the company
The open model runs on your server or in your cloud in the EU. To choose from:
- White-tailed eagle
- Polish model, SpeakLeash and ACK Cyfronet AGH
- PLLUM
- Polish model, HIVE consortium commissioned by the Ministry of Digitization
- Qwen
- Alibaba
- GLM
- Zhipu AI
- DeepSeek
- DeepSeek
We select a model for the task and check it on your cases. We run it, tune it and maintain it.
Source: Bielik and PLLuM, ACK Cyfronet AGH ↗ · PLLuM, Ministry of Digitization ↗
Do you have a lot of your own data? We will fine-tune the small model.
- 1 Your examples
- 2 tuning
- 3 test on new cases
- 4 model at your place
When you have thousands of similar emails, documents or reports, we teach a small open model based on your examples. It works for you, responds quickly and costs less to maintain than a large model. We measure quality on issues that the model has not seen while learning.
Przemysław and Piotr did it in large programming and consulting companies. Artem did it before and does it today at Syntalith. It's about models on your own infrastructure, tuning and quality measurement.
You choose the protection level during the interview. We sign the data processing agreement before we see any data.Schedule a free analysis →
Price
Three packages. You know the price right away.
Team of up to 10 people
from €1,150
net, paid once · 2 weeks
Company, from 11 to 40 people
from €2,300
net, paid once · 3–4 weeks
Organization, over 40 people
from €4,600
net, paid once · 6–8 weeks
- The same packages once you have licenses. To start, an inspection of the space in 1 day is enough: €450 net.
- You buy Claude Team licenses directly from Anthropic, without our markup: USD 20 per person per month for annual payment or USD 25 for monthly payment, from 2 to 150 people.
From conversation to measurement
01 · 30 min
Free process review€0
An engineer picks 3 to 5 of your team's tasks with you. Written plan within 2 working days.
02 · 2 weeks
Rolloutfrom €1,150
Accounts and roles, rules for working with data, training on your team's tasks. You buy licences directly from the provider.
03 · after 30 days
Measurementincluded
We compare task times before and after. We name in writing the tasks worth handing to a system.
or call+48 888 78 48 78WhatsAppMon–Fri 9:00–17:00 CET
Worked example · Scenario
How we count the payback: a team after the training
We run the same count for your school in the free analysis.
€5,817
a month for answering 2,000 customer emails
Payback: 0.6 mo.
5 minutes to read an email and write a reply and checking in 15% of the old time are our assumptions. €34.90 an hour is the EU average hourly labour cost for 2025 according to Eurostat, for companies with 10 or more employees. Model cost: Claude Sonnet 5.5, about 3,000 + 600 tokens per message with a draft reply, at the ECB rate of 1.1205 USD per euro on 22 October 2026.
See the full calculation →Questions
Can a teacher use AI with student data?
Preparing materials needs no student data. If a tool is to read pupils' work or record their activity, the school and its data protection officer assess the legal basis for processing, the recipients and the need for an impact assessment before buying.
What should a school check with an AI vendor?
What reaches the vendor, where it is stored and for how long, who has access, how connected apps work and how to delete the data when the contract ends.
How much does such training cost?
At Syntalith from €1,150 net for a day of workshop for the team. Claude Team licences cost $20 per person a month. With 10 people saving 1 hour a week each, the payback is 0.9 months.
