How to Start an AI Club at School: Parent Starter Kit

Start tonight

Your kid can start an AI club without a CS teacher and without a district AI deal. You pick the tool. You set the house rules. The school supplies a room and a faculty sponsor who is willing to sit in the room.

Print the one-pager and the permission language below. Hand them to the sponsor. Then try HeyOtto free so the first meeting has a parent-created account ready.

Try free to create the parent account before you walk into the building.

What an AI club is (and isn't) in 2026

An AI club is a student club with a faculty advisor. It is not a classroom product, not a district pilot, and not a vendor curriculum the school has to buy.

High school clubs are often student-founded. A kid writes the pitch, finds a sponsor, and recruits at the club fair. Middle school clubs are more often teacher-started, because the faculty member has to own the room and the permission slips. Either way, a parent is the one who should pick the tool and create the accounts.

This is not FBLA or TSA unless that is already the vehicle at your school. Those orgs have their own contests and bylaws. Do not bolt an AI club onto them unless the advisor already wants that.

This is not a paid "club in a box." You do not need anyone to sell your school a curriculum. You need eight meetings, a browser, and house rules a parent can actually enforce.

The tool problem

The first fight is not "should we have a club." It is "which tool walks into the room."

ChatGPT is an adult tool. OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Teens on August 18, 2026. Parents still cannot see those chats. If the club kicks off with a ChatGPT demo, you have already lost the visibility argument. Read the parent breakdown: ChatGPT for Teens.

Character.AI is a companion product. It cut under-18 open chat on November 25, 2025. Do not put a companion app in a school club, even if a student already has an account at home.

Khanmigo is a tutor and a classroom product. Teachers cannot grant student access on their own. Classroom access is district-only. A faculty sponsor cannot provision Khanmigo for an after-school club.

HeyOtto! is the 8-18 platform a parent can find and pay for without a district deal. Otto is an assistant, not the headline of the club. You create the account. You can read the thread. That is why it belongs in this kit. Full parent setup is in the parent guide.

Copy-paste: one-page pitch for the teacher sponsor

Print this. Do not rewrite it into a student constitution. The sponsor does not need to be an AI expert.

Copy this one-pager and email it, or hand it over at the next conference period:

AI Club, one-page pitch for a faculty sponsor

Mission: Students learn what AI is and is not, practice using it as a homework assistant (help, not answers), and finish with a family demo day. Ages 8-18, depending on the building.

Time: 45 minutes, once a week, for 8 weeks. After school or during an existing club period.

Budget: None. Families use parent-created accounts. The school supplies a room and a sponsor.

Accounts: A parent creates each account. Students do not sign up on their own. The sponsor does not need to be an AI expert and does not need a district AI contract.

Academic integrity: Help is not answers. Club work uses a Socratic tutor prompt. Students must show their thinking. Copy-paste of a finished answer is not allowed.

First meeting: We will not demo ChatGPT or DALL·E. We will demo a parent-provisioned HeyOtto project so a parent can see the thread.

What we need from you: A room, attendance, and a signature on the extra-curricular form. We will bring the permission language, house rules, and weekly plan.

Contact: [Parent name], [phone or email]

Copy-paste: permission language + house rules

Club permission is the school's generic extra-curricular slip plus the language below. This is parent consent language. It is not a school vendor agreement.

Copy this permission add-on onto the slip or into the email to families:

I give permission for my child, [Student name], to join the AI Club at [School name] for the [Season / semester] term.

Accounts: I will create the club account. My child will not create their own account and will not use an unpaid adult chatbot for club work.

Tools: The club will not use companion or character apps. The club will not use ChatGPT or DALL·E for demos or weekly work.

Visibility: I can read the club thread. If I cannot see the chat, that tool is not allowed.

Homework rule: AI is for Socratic help. It may not write the finished assignment. Students must show their thinking.

House rules: No photos of other students in prompts. No uploading another kid's work. No pretending the assistant is a person.

Parent name: ____________ Date: ____________

Student name: ____________ Grade: ____________

House rules to post on the wall

Same language, shorter. Tape this next to the door.

1. Parent-created accounts only.

2. No companion or character apps.

3. No unpaid adult chatbots.

4. A parent can read the thread.

5. Homework help is Socratic. Help is not answers.

6. No photos of classmates in prompts.

Copy-paste: week 1 club prompt

Have each kid paste this into HeyOtto at the first meeting. Fill the brackets first.

Copy this week 1 prompt, fill in the brackets, and paste it into HeyOtto:

Role: Act as a patient, age-appropriate assistant who teaches what AI is and is not. You are not a friend, companion, or character.

Task: Run a 15-minute first-meeting workshop for [Club name] at [School name]. Teach [Grade / age range] students the difference between an assistant and a companion, then walk us through our house rules.

Context: This is week 1 of an 8-week student club. A parent created this account. A faculty sponsor is in the room. We have not used ChatGPT or DALL·E today.

Constraints:

1. Do not give a finished essay, poem, or homework answer.

2. Use short turns. Ask one check question after each idea.

3. Do not role-play as a person, friend, or character.

4. If a student asks you to write the assignment, refuse and switch to Socratic help.

5. Keep examples school-safe and off other students' photos.

Output: A 5-part mini-lesson (what AI is, what it is not, assistant vs companion, house rules, one practice question). After each part, wait for a student answer.

How to fill in the blanks

[Club name]: e.g., Lincoln AI Club

[School name]: e.g., Lincoln Middle School

[Grade / age range]: e.g., 7th-8th grade, ages 12-14

8-week project list (browser only)

No Colab. No Python install. A Chromebook and a parent-created HeyOtto account are enough. Week 1 through demo day is eight meetings.

Week 1: What AI is and is not, plus house rules. Read the one-pager out loud. Paste the week 1 prompt above. Vote on a club name. Post the six house rules.

Week 2-3: Homework-help prompt and "show your thinking." Each student fills the tutor template from our homework help prompt and uses it on a real assignment they already have. The rule: the assistant may not write the finished work. Students copy the thread and explain one step they did themselves.

Week 4: Study guide / flashcards. Pick one upcoming quiz. Ask HeyOtto to quiz, not to summarize the chapter into a cheat sheet. Students leave with a study list they can defend.

Week 5: Coding or game prototype. Build a tiny project in the browser. HeyOtto Code is a fine how, if you already have an account. Keep it to one screen: a quiz, a clicker, or a choose-your-path story. No install.

Week 6: Deepfake / media literacy. Use the live how-to on deepfakes and kids' photos. Practice "how would I take this down" without using a classmate's face.

Week 7: Ethics and when not to use it. Cases: a take-home test, a friend's essay, a photo of a classmate. The club writes three "we will not" rules in their own words.

Week 8: Demo day for families. Each student shows a parent a thread the parent can open. No ChatGPT. No DALL·E. Five minutes per kid, then snacks.

Optional extras, not the core plan: Code.org Hour of AI and MIT Day of AI are strong one-off lessons if you have a free period. Do not replace this 8-week list with their full curricula.

First meeting + club-fair script (45 min)

Do not demo ChatGPT. Do not demo DALL·E. Demo a parent-provisioned HeyOtto project instead.

Club-fair script (90 seconds)

Kid speaks. Parent stands nearby.

Hi, I'm [Name]. We're starting an AI club. It is 45 minutes a week for 8 weeks. Parents create the accounts. We do not use ChatGPT or character apps. Week 8 is a demo day for families. If you want in, write your email and have a parent sign the slip.

First meeting, minute by minute

• 0:00-5:00. Sponsor takes attendance. Parent (or kid) reads the mission line from the one-pager.
• 5:00-10:00. Post the six house rules. Students copy them into a notebook.
• 10:00-25:00. Each student (or pair) pastes the week 1 club prompt into a parent-created HeyOtto account. Walk the room. If someone opens ChatGPT, close it.
• 25:00-35:00. Share-out: one thing AI is, one thing it is not. Sponsor only needs to keep time.
• 35:00-42:00. Sign the permission add-on if anyone is new. Assign week 2: bring one real homework question.
• 42:00-45:00. Stack chairs. Confirm next week.

If you want the account ready before meeting 1, try free tonight.

FAQ

Does the school have to buy this?

No. Each family tries free. The school is not the customer for this club kit.

Is this HeyOtto for Schools?

No. This page is a family club kit. The classroom and district lane is on Schools.

What if we already have a CS club?

Add an AI month. Do not fork a second club unless the CS advisor asks for one.

Why HeyOtto for the weekly work?

We built HeyOtto so a parent can see the chats. Adult tools still hide that thread. That is the whole reason this kit does not start with ChatGPT. Thousands of families already use it that way.

Try free.