Academic Integrity & Plagiarism

“Honesty is the best policy.”  This policy is intended to reinforce that simple truth.  Plagiarism and cheating are serious offenses and will be treated accordingly.

Academic dishonesty could include:

• Plagiarism 

  • Submitting work which is NOT yours as your own including work created by or with the aid of generative AI technology

  • Dividing questions on an individual assignment so that four or five friends answer two or three questions, permitting each other to copy answers.  Although group work and cooperative learning are often encouraged, individual assignments should remain the work of the individual student

  • Willful copying of another student's work or submitting work substituting synonyms for someone else's word choice or simply paraphrasing borrowed ideas with documentation

  • Copying sentences, phrases, paragraphs, or pages from books or other sources without providing documentation. Writing should be either original or attributed

  • Taking answers from a classmate’s quiz or test paper, using a crib sheet or sharing answers during a testing situation are examples of a most serious kind of dishonesty

• Conduct outside the domain of responsible and honest academic work

Fort Collins High School AI and Academic Integrity Policy

Effective beginning January 2026

Fort Collins High School has adopted a scale detailing the acceptable and unacceptable use of artificial intelligence on certain assignments throughout the school year (see below).  This scale provides a guide for student expectations.  If AI is permitted on any assignment, teachers will specify which level of AI usage is permitted.  Copying another student’s work, cutting and pasting from the internet, or the use of AI is not permitted on any assignment unless otherwise indicated on that assignment.  

 First occurrence: Student-teacher conversation and formal warning against plagiarism and/or unauthorized use of artificial intelligence, including information about possible future consequences.  The student will receive a zero for the assignment but may earn partial or full credit by redoing the assignment completely.  The teacher will complete the FCHS Plagiarism Form linked in the Toolkit and contact parents to inform them of the infraction and possible future consequences.  

 Second occurrence:  Student receives a zero and cannot earn credit by redoing the assignment.  The teacher will complete the FCHS Plagiarism Form in the Toolkit and will refer the student to the deans.  Deans will contact the student’s parents/guardians to inform them of the infraction and possible escalating consequences.

 Third and subsequent occurrences: Student receives a zero and cannot earn credit by redoing the assignment. The teacher will complete the FCHS Plagiarism Form in the Toolkit and will refer the student to the deans.  Deans will contact the student’s parents/guardians and will enforce consequences based on the PSD Discipline Matrix.

 *Within a school year, two different offenses in two different classes constitute a second offense; it does not have to be in the same class. 

For each infraction, the teacher should complete the FCHS Plagiarism Form, linked below, indicating that the offense occurred and documenting the actions taken.  

The Academic Integrity policy complies with PSD Policy JKDA/JKEA

1. First Occurrence: Student-teacher conversation and formal warning against plagiarism and/or unauthorized use of artificial intelligence, including information about possible future consequences. The student will receive a zero for the assignment but could earn partial or full credit by redoing the assignment completely. The teacher will notify the deans, put a note in Synergy, and contact parents to inform them of the infraction and possible future consequences.

2. Second occurrence:  Student receives a zero and cannot earn credit by redoing the assignment.  Parents and the deans are notified of the student’s second offense and the student is referred to the deans for consequences up to and including detention or suspension.

3. Third and subsequent occurrences: Student receives a zero and cannot earn credit by redoing the assignment. Parents and the deans are notified of the student’s third and subsequent offenses and the student is referred to the deans for escalating consequences.

*Within a school year, two different offenses in two different classes constitute a second offense; it does not have to be in the same class.

The Academic Integrity policy complies with PSD Policy JKDA/JKEA