IPHS 300: AI for Humanity
Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
Spring 2025
Abstract
Hundreds of thousands of parents and students in New York City’s school district alone (Fancsali and Farley 2018) go through the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process every year, attending meetings and evaluations in order to determine adequate services and students with disabilities’ educational trajectories. However, most parents, especially those new to public education policy, report difficulty navigating the system or acquiring the resources necessary to successfully advocate for their children at IEP meetings (Advocates for Children 2025, Kurth et al. 2020). The rise of generative artificial intelligence and increased linguistic capabilities of interactional chatbots provokes questions about such technologies’ ability to assist humans in ethical, legal and policy-based contexts. Gemini 2.5 Pro, currently one of the most advanced large language models, exhibits exceptional reasoning and problem-solving abilities. Using a 5-point rubric for model performance and exploring two main scenarios essential to the IEP process ((a) general advice-giving and (b) IEP meeting role-play related to two classifications: dyslexia and emotional disability/emotional disturbance)), I suggest that, while Gemini is adept at advising parents new to the IEP process who may not be able to otherwise access concise explanations, resources, and role-playing in a meeting context, the model exhibits a tendency to stereotype interactions related to cultural differences. This project expands on questions of LLM capability as well as LLMs’ handling of students with disabilities’ needs and advocacy processes using Gemini 2.5 Pro as a case study. Additionally, this research holds implications for the future role that artificial intelligence might play in assisting human actors in education policy settings.
Recommended Citation
Bahrampour, Nava, "Can Advanced Chatbots Help Us Navigate Educational Advocacy? Understanding The Potential Of Large Language Models As Assistants And Guides Within An IEP (Individualized Education Program) Meeting Context" (2025). IPHS 300: AI for Humanity. Paper 51.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/dh_iphs_ai/51
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.