OpenAI said it is extending its ChatGPT for Teachers program to 55 additional school systems across 20 states, bringing the service to more than 100,000 additional K–12 educators and staff. The program was first introduced in 2025 to nearly 150,000 teachers and staff, and the company now reports partnerships with over 100 K–12 organizations in 30 states that together receive free access and training for more than 300,000 educators and staff.
Network reach and partners
The new cohort includes roughly one in five of America’s 20 largest public school districts and several highly diverse systems. OpenAI listed a number of new district partners by name, including Abilene Independent School District (TX), Baltimore City Public Schools (MD), Boise School District (ID), Fort Worth Independent School District (TX), Frisco Independent School District (TX), Los Angeles County Office of Education (CA), Orange County Public Schools (FL), Ventura Unified School District (CA) and Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VA), among others.
A 16-state data privacy agreement and California arrangement
To help districts evaluate and adopt the tool more consistently, OpenAI announced a 16-state National Data Privacy Agreement framed through the Student Data Privacy Consortium. The agreement is intended to give participating districts a recognized path to evaluate ChatGPT for Teachers against student data privacy requirements without negotiating separate contracts for each district.
The General Offers currently cover these 16 states: Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. California is covered by a separate agreement.
Education-grade controls and data handling
OpenAI says ChatGPT for Teachers was built with education-grade privacy, security and administrative controls. Data shared in a ChatGPT for Teachers workspace is not used by default to train the company’s models, and district or school leaders can invite educators into managed workspaces with role-based controls designed to support FERPA-like requirements.
Training, implementation and support
OpenAI emphasizes that access to tools should be paired with governance, training and local support. Through a shared implementation model, the company provides hands-on training, district leader support, peer learning across systems, and ongoing guidance to help educators adopt the tools responsibly. OpenAI continues to run training via OpenAI Academy and is part of the National Academy for AI Instruction with the American Federation of Teachers, a five-year initiative intended to equip 400,000 K–12 educators with practical AI skills.
This summer, more than 1,600 teachers, administrators and district leaders took part in hands-on AI Skills Jams hosted by OpenAI Academy in partnership with the Walton Family Foundation. According to the announcement, 93% of participants said they left with something they could use again, and 96% said they planned to apply what they learned within 30 days.
Classroom examples and early results
OpenAI highlighted several district experiences. Lynwood Unified, an early partner, treats AI as an equity issue and emphasizes privacy and responsible experimentation. Practical examples from Skills Jams and partner districts include an elementary music teacher in Fairfax creating a year-long planning resource tailored to her curriculum and district rules; a fourth-grade teacher in Jonesboro converting long lesson plans into 30–40 minute, standards-focused lessons; Chicago educators using ChatGPT to simulate science experiments, support student animation projects and analyze more than 200 novels for representation gaps; and a San Bernardino principal solving a complex scheduling task that would otherwise have taken hours or days.
OpenAI also reported usage patterns from a privacy-preserving analysis: between January 1 and July 16, educators sent more than 1.9 million messages about time-saving tasks, including around 900,000 messages about report cards and progress reports, 800,000 about lesson planning, and more than 100,000 each about substitute plans and teacher-evaluation materials.
Quote and intentions
Leah Belsky, Vice President of Education at OpenAI, said: “Education has always helped young people prepare for the world they’re going to inherit. In the age of AI, students need educators and schools that help them build judgment, confidence, and agency with these tools.” Belsky described the company’s aim as giving teachers time, training and community while collaborating with educators to shape classroom use.
Availability and timeline
OpenAI reiterated that ChatGPT for Teachers remains available only to administrators, faculty and educators, and that it will remain a free tool for verified U.S. K–12 educators through June 2028.
Sample of new district partners
New district partners named in the announcement include: Abilene Independent School District (TX), Adlai E. Stevenson High School District 125 (IL), Baltimore City Public Schools (MD), Boise School District (ID), Clarkstown Central School District (NY), El Dorado County Office of Education (CA), Epic Charter Schools (OK), Flagler Schools (FL), Fort Worth Independent School District (TX), Frisco Independent School District (TX), Humble Independent School District (TX), Kern High School District (CA), Killeen Independent School District (TX), Laramie County School District 1 (WY), Lewisville Independent School District (TX), Los Angeles County Office of Education (CA), Needham Public Schools (MA), New Trier Township High School District 203 (IL), Northside Independent School District (TX), Oakland Schools (MI), Orange County Department of Education (CA), Orange County Public Schools (FL), Pocantico Hills Central School District (NY), Rye Country Day School (NY), Santa Cruz County Office of Education (CA), Sarasota County Schools (FL), St. Vrain Valley Schools (CO), Township High School District 211 (IL), Ventura Unified School District (CA), Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VA), Westminster Public Schools (CO).
The announcement frames the expansion as an example of how responsible AI adoption can scale when teachers experiment in secure workspaces, districts implement oversight and expert guidance, and educators and leaders share practices across classrooms and communities.
