Regional specialty centers · Richmond metro
One spine for every student. One capstone per center.
An AI enrichment and capstone program for the specialty centers, magnets, and career centers of the Richmond region. The enrichment layer is identical everywhere. The capstone is built around what your center already teaches — and your center runs it.
12 track pathways · 1 brief bank published today (Applied ML) · 3 credit lanes · Capstone Pack instruments with purchase
Start here
What this is not
It is not another AI curriculum. Code.org gives away a full-year AI foundations course. aiEDU gives away cross-curricular AI units. MIT, NVIDIA, Amazon, and Google are all putting free AI content and tools into high schools right now, several of them in this region specifically. Nobody should pay for AI lessons, and we would not ask you to. Our project briefs are free for the same reason.
It is also not a staffing service. We do not recruit mentors, we do not screen them, we do not match them to your students, and we are not in the building on showcase night. Every one of those things is a child-safety decision your division is legally required to own, and a vendor cannot take it from you.
What is actually missing, at every center we have looked at, is the instrument set: a rubric a director can defend, a per-student evidence file for the five C’s clause, a briefing that makes a volunteer mentor useful in an hour, and a scorecard that makes a judging panel agree. That is unglamorous, it is reusable, and it is what we sell. It sits happily on top of free content you already use.
Layer one · every student
The AI Common Spine
A twelve-week, sixty-hour enrichment module that drops into a course the school already runs. Identical in every building, so the region shares a vocabulary — and so a student who transfers between centers does not restart.
No new course
It rides inside an existing period
Co-taught into English, history, science, or a CTE course. No master-schedule fight, no new staffing line, no board vote. That is deliberate — it is the only version of this that a school can say yes to in August.
Standards
Mapped to the 2024 Computer Science SOL
Anchored in the Impacts of Computing strand and the Computer Science Foundations and Principles courses — the standards Virginia requires divisions to have fully implemented by this school year. Every lesson carries its own alignment.
The five C’s
Evidence, not assertion
Virginia now requires every graduate to demonstrate critical thinking, creative thinking, collaboration, communication, and citizenship. The Spine produces a per-student evidence file for that clause, which most schools are currently documenting by hand.
Layer two · your center
Twelve capstone tracks
Each track takes the AI question into the domain your students chose in eighth grade. Only Applied ML Systems has a published brief bank today; the others are planned pathways we will author — we list them so directors can see the intended map, not to imply every bank is downloadable now.
Applied ML Systems
Build, evaluate, and ship a working model against a real client brief.
Data collection and labeling, baseline vs. model, evaluation beyond accuracy, deployment constraints, and a written model card. Students finish with a running artifact and documentation a professional would accept.
Information technology, computer science, and innovative technology centers
Open Applied ML briefs →Adversarial ML & AI Security
plannedAttack the model, then defend it.
Prompt injection, data poisoning, model extraction, and jailbreak taxonomies — paired with detection, red-team reporting, and AI-assisted defense. Maps cleanly onto existing Security+ and Virginia Cyber Range work.
Cybersecurity centers and cyber CTE programs
Model-in-the-Loop Engineering
plannedWhere a model belongs inside a physical system — and where it does not.
Sensor data, predictive maintenance, tolerance and failure analysis, and the safety case for handing a decision to a model. Students produce a design review that treats the model as a component with a failure mode.
Engineering academies and STEM centers
Clinical AI & Diagnostic Bias
plannedRead an algorithm the way you would read a lab result.
Sensitivity, specificity, base rates, and why a model that is 95% accurate can still be dangerous. Students audit a published diagnostic model for population bias and write a clinical caution sheet.
Health science, medical sciences, and health professions centers
Synthetic Media & Provenance
plannedProve where a piece of media came from.
Detection limits, content credentials and provenance standards, disclosure norms, and newsroom policy. Students ship a verified package plus the AI standards document their own newsroom would adopt.
Mass communications, journalism, and media relations centers
Generative Media Studio
plannedMake the work, then defend how it was made.
Training data and consent, copyright and derivative work, artist attribution, and disclosure. Every portfolio piece ships with a tooling statement — the habit the industry is converging on.
Arts centers and arts-and-technology governor's schools
Algorithmic Policy & Governance
plannedRegulate a system you have actually taken apart.
Risk scoring, disparate impact, procurement rules, and international AI governance. Students run a mock rulemaking or treaty negotiation and produce a policy brief with an implementation cost.
Leadership, international relations, government, and social sciences centers
AI Venture Build
plannedA real company, with a real unit economic, that happens to use a model.
Problem interviews, wedge selection, inference cost modeling, pricing, and the pitch. Fits an existing entrepreneurship competition or expo, and lines up with an Entrepreneurship work-based learning experience.
Entrepreneurship academies and business administration college academies
Machines & Meaning
plannedWhat a language model reveals about language.
Authorship and voice, corpus methods for the humanities, the history of mechanical reasoning, and what gets lost in a token. Students produce a research essay with a computational component.
Humanities centers, IB programmes, and language and global citizenship centers
Assistive & Accessible AI
plannedDesign for the person the default model was not built for.
Speech and motion models, augmentative communication, reading and executive-function supports, and accessibility testing with real users. Students co-design with the people who will use the tool.
Education and human development centers, therapies centers, and specialized schools
Environment, Energy & Compute
plannedThe data center is now a local environmental question.
Remote sensing and climate models, plus the water, land, and grid cost of inference — using the facilities being built in this region as the case study. Students produce a siting analysis.
Environmental studies and sustainability centers
AI-Assisted Trades & Credentials
plannedThe model as a tool on the bench, not a subject in a book.
Diagnostic assistants, documentation, estimating, and quality control in automotive, HVAC, electrical, health support, and culinary contexts — stacked onto a Board-approved industry credential.
Advanced career education centers and technical centers
Fit
Who this is for
This works when a center already has somewhere to put the work. If all four of these are true, the conversation is short:
- A culminating requirement already exists — a senior capstone, senior project, AP Research, PLTW Capstone, an IB Extended Essay or CAS project, or a CTE completer sequence.
- A teacher owns it and is currently inventing the projects and the rubric themselves, every year.
- Your division already runs a volunteer screening pipeline — which every division in this region does, because it must.
- The domain is one of the twelve tracks above. If it is not, say so and we will tell you honestly whether it is a fit.
We keep a working map of Richmond-metro specialty centers, host schools, and the track each one most likely matches. It is not published, because a center’s programs change faster than a web page and we would rather be corrected in private than be wrong in public. Ask and we will send the entry for your division.
Credit
Three lanes, and one thing we will not claim
A center picks a lane based on how much lead time it has. Most start in Lane A in year one and move to Lane B or C in year two.
Use the capstone slot you already have
Fastest — no new approval
AP Research, PLTW Capstone, an IB Extended Essay or CAS project, a center senior capstone, or a school senior project. The credit already exists; for Applied ML we supply a published brief bank, and Capstone Pack buyers get the rubric and evidence template. AP Research in particular has no prescribed content, so an AI topic creates no curricular conflict.
What it needs from you: Center director sign-off only.
High-quality work-based learning
One semester of lead time
Internship and Entrepreneurship are both High-Quality Work-Based Learning types under VDOE's current framework, and both are credit-bearing. An HQWBL placement also scores on the Employment leg of the 3E Readiness framework — the same experience counts twice, once on the transcript and once on the school's accountability profile. Our briefs are written so the work fits an Internship or an Entrepreneurship experience specifically.
What it needs from you: Your division's work-based learning coordinator, a training agreement, and a signed training plan. The division places and supervises the student. Confirm the current hour minimum with your coordinator — VDOE's published guidance and division practice do not currently agree.
Dual enrollment alignment
Two semesters of lead time
The Virginia Community College System already carries an AI course family: ITE 135 Artificial Intelligence Awareness, ITE 142 Introduction to AI Tools for Business, ITE 153 AI Ethics and Governance, and ITE 228 Applied AI for Business — three credits each, all four confirmed on the Brightpoint schedule. ITE 135 + 142 + 153 is nine transferable credits, which is exactly the benchmark a Governor's STEM Academy graduate must meet.
What it needs from you: A dual enrollment contract between your division and the college, and an instructor who meets SACSCOC and VCCS credentialing — generally 18 graduate semester hours in the discipline. We supply the standards crosswalk between our track and the course outcomes. We do not file the articulation, and we do not credential instructors; the college and the division own both.
This program does not produce verified credit
We want to be direct about this, because vendors are not always. In Virginia a verified credit comes from an end-of-course SOL test, a Board-approved substitute test, or a locally awarded verified credit in English, mathematics, laboratory science, or history. There is no computer science SOL test. There is no computer science or AI entry on the substitute test list. And for every student currently enrolled, an industry credential no longer converts into a verified credit either.
What this program does produce is standard credit, satisfaction of the graduation requirement that every student complete a dual enrollment or advanced course, a high-quality work-based learning experience, or a Board-approved credential — and documented evidence of the five C’s. Anyone promising you verified credit for an AI course is either mistaken or hoping you will not check.
One related correction we make often: under VDOE’s framework there are exactly six qualifying High-Quality Work-Based Learning types, and mentorship is not one of them. Job shadowing, externships, co-ops, and service learning are not either. When this program touches HQWBL it does so through Internship or Entrepreneurship, which do qualify.
The boundary
What ships, and what stays yours
This is a product you run, not a service we perform. That line is drawn where child safety is, and it does not move.
The brief bank (Applied ML — available now)
Twenty-five scoped Applied ML project briefs with public data sources, expected failure modes, a definition of done, and a five C's mapping. Dataset URLs are marked UNVERIFIED until confirmed live. Other specialty tracks are planned pathways — their brief banks are not published yet.
The rubric and the evidence file
A six-dimension scoring rubric a center director can defend at a parent conference, plus a per-student evidence template documenting the five C's demonstration Virginia now requires of every graduate — the clause most schools are currently satisfying by hand. Ships with Capstone Pack; not a free standalone download today.
The mentor briefing kit
A one-page role description, a first-conversation script, a boundaries sheet, and a feedback form — written for an advisory mentor who reviews work and never supervises a student alone. You hand this to mentors your division has already cleared. Ships with Capstone Pack.
The AUP and policy pack
Acceptable-use language, student data privacy mapping, and transparency disclosures your board can adopt against the AI guidance Virginia now requires divisions to align with. Ships with Capstone Pack.
The judge scorecard
A calibrated scorecard and a fifteen-minute judge orientation, so a panel of volunteers scores consistently and the result survives a second look. Ships with Capstone Pack.
The showcase run-of-show
A full playbook for the May exhibition: timeline, room plan, judge brief, family communications, and a press note. You run the evening; the playbook means you are not designing it from scratch. Ships with Capstone Pack.
What your division keeps
- Sourcing your own mentors, and screening them through the volunteer pipeline your division already operates.
- Supervising students. Every mentor interaction happens under your supervision and your division's policies.
- Placing and monitoring any work-based learning experience, through your WBL coordinator.
- Running the showcase evening itself, using our playbook.
- Awarding the credit and signing the transcript.
This is not us being cautious. Chesterfield, for one, requires anyone working with students in a mentoring capacity to clear the division’s own central application and background check, and will not accept a vendor’s screening in its place. The national standard for mentoring programs assigns full liability for screening and placement to whoever brokers the match. A vendor who offers to hand you pre-vetted mentors is either not reading those rules or is asking you to carry a risk you have not priced.
Implementation
Built around the budget calendar, not against it
Most divisions in this region approved the current fiscal year’s budget in March 2026. A conversation starting now reaches FY28, and pretending otherwise wastes your year and ours.
Aug — Oct 2026
Read the Applied ML brief bank
Free, no contract, no purchase order, no data privacy agreement — it is a document, not a system. Run it past your teachers and see whether the work is real. Other track banks are not published yet.
Oct — Dec 2026
Common Spine, and the budget ask
Where a school licenses the Spine, the enrichment module drops into one existing course with two half-days of onboarding and no master-schedule change. This is also the window to write the Capstone Pack into the FY28 request.
Jan — Mar 2027
Your mentor pipeline, your timeline
The division recruits and clears advisory mentors through its existing volunteer process. We are not in this step, by design. Board budget approval typically lands in this window.
Mar — May 2027
Pilot cohort and showcase
A center can run a first Applied ML cohort on the free brief bank alone. Public showcase in May, run by the school. This is the artifact that unlocks everything after it.
Jul 2027
Purchase order for FY28
The Capstone Pack starts when the fiscal year does. This is the cycle an August 2026 conversation can actually reach — the previous fiscal year's budget closed in March 2026.
Fall 2027 onward
Full track
Where a center wants it, the Governor's STEM Academy proposal goes to the Board — that filing must land at least eight months before opening.
Pricing
Flat, per site. Not per seat, not per student.
AI Common Spine
Included
in a School or Division license
The universal enrichment layer for every student in the building, not only the center cohort. School license $2,500/yr covers unlimited teachers at one school; Division license $12,000/yr covers the whole division.
See license tiersCapstone Pack — School
$3,500
per school, per year
Includes the published Applied ML brief bank plus Capstone Pack instruments (rubric, five C's evidence template, mentor briefing kit, AUP pack, judge scorecard, showcase run-of-show). Additional specialty tracks are authored as they ship — we do not claim every track bank is downloadable today. On top of a $2,500 School license that is $6,000 all in.
Request a quoteCapstone Pack — Division
$9,000
per division, per year
The same pack for every specialty center in the division, with one renewal and one invoice. Worth doing once a center has run a cohort and a division champion is ready to carry it through a competitive quote process.
Talk it throughThe Applied ML brief bank is free
Not a trial and not gated behind a signature. Twenty-five Applied ML capstone briefs are published for anyone to read and use. Dataset URLs inside the bank are marked UNVERIFIED until confirmed live. Other specialty tracks do not yet have published brief banks.
Capstone Pack instruments (rubric, evidence file, mentor kit, judge scorecard, showcase run-of-show) ship with a paid pack — we would rather show the real briefs than invent social proof or imply unpublished kits are already free downloads.
Northstar Academy and other specialized programs are served at cost, permanently. Accessibility work should not carry a margin.
Funding pathways
Divisions rarely fund this from a new line. Five existing ones fit:
| AIS Innovation in Education Pilot Program | Virginia's 2026 AI law created a pilot program funded at $2 million in the FY 2027-2028 budget, with priority to under-resourced divisions. This is the newest and most specific pathway on the list. The administering office and application window had not been published when we last checked. |
| Perkins V | Career and technical education funds — the natural home for work-based learning placements, credential attainment, and CTE-hosted capstones. |
| Title IV-A | Well-rounded education and effective use of technology. The standard route for the Common Spine layer. |
| College Partnership Laboratory School planning grant | Up to $200,000 for one-time design costs, applied for by a partnering college or university rather than the division. Relevant if a center wants to formalize a higher-education partnership. |
| Local education foundations | Showcase programs photograph well and fund easily. The May exhibition is usually what closes the second year of funding. |
We will help match the program to a pathway and draft the budget-justification language. Not legal or financial advice.
Why this year
Three things landed at once
- The 2024 Computer Science Standards of Learning require full implementation this school year, and the Impacts of Computing strand is where AI content belongs.
- Virginia’s 2026 AI law took effect July 1, directing the Department of Education to issue guidance on AI in instructional settings and requiring every school board to adopt aligned policies — with a $2 million pilot program attached in the FY 2027-2028 budget. Some divisions in this region are further along than others; the ones that have not adopted a policy yet are writing one this year.
- A new cybersecurity center opens in Henrico this year, and a nine-credit dual enrollment AI sequence already exists on the Brightpoint schedule. The pieces are on the table; nobody has assembled them.
A center that starts the conversation this fall can run an Applied ML cohort on the free published brief bank in spring 2027 and have the Capstone Pack funded for FY28. A center that waits a year applies to a Governor’s STEM Academy cycle it has already missed, because that filing has to reach the Board at least eight months before opening.
How this page was checked
Credit mechanics were verified against the Virginia Standards of Accreditation, the Board-approved substitute test list, VDOE work-based learning guidance, and the Virginia Community College System course catalog. Center names and capstone requirements were verified against division publications and school websites. Where sources disagree — the current work-based learning internship hour minimum is the live example — we say so on this page rather than pick the number that sells better.
Found something out of date about your center? Tell us and we will fix it. hello@contact.schoolhouse.space
One conversation with one center director
That is the whole first step. Thirty minutes, no procurement, no board item. Start with the published Applied ML briefs, then decide whether a Capstone Pack quote is worth the next conversation.