Parent here, with a son graduating high school. ChatGPT is used by everyone he knows in high school. He used it recently to write an essay for a highschool class. But it's not the essay he handed in. More like it wrote out an outline that he used to get started on his essay. Kinda like a first draft, but more just to give him inspiration for him to get started in writing something in his own voice.
I saw him do it, and told him that it was reasonable so long as he didn't try to submit something that was completely written by AI. He already knew that the AIs are not at all good enough to be trusted for that (yet). But it is a good way to get a start on a paper. Kinda like writing a paper on a topic and reading the Wikipedia page on it first.
AI is a tool. To be used or misused.
Teachers can have kids do short tests in person in class to test knowledge, while using projects that allow AI input to test understanding.