IBL News | New York
OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Teachers this Wednesday, providing a free K-12 workspace across the U.S. until June 2027.
This work builds on the company’s partnership with the American Federation of Teachers. Today, three in five teachers use an AI tool, mostly to save working hours.
This ChatGPT for Teachers, a version of ChatGPT designed for K-12 educators and school districts, not for students, also includes administrative controls for managers. It supports FERPA requirements.
OpenAI requires verification to set up a free workspace for teachers and staff at U.S. K–12 schools or districts.
OpenAI is initially launching ChatGPT for Teachers with a cohort of districts that represent 150,000 educators. The startup also released an AI Literacy Blueprint.
Leah Belsky, vice president of education at OpenAI, ensured that student data would be protected and that anything shared within ChatGPT for Teachers would not be used to train OpenAI models.
This month marks the third anniversary of the launch of its generic ChatGPT chatbot in November 2022.
Since then, many teachers and parents have argued that students can use the tool to cheat and avoid engaging in critical thinking.
In July, OpenAI released a feature in ChatGPT called “study mode,” built for college-age students and aimed at helping them work through problems step by step before arriving at an answer.
According to the company, “ChatGPT for Teachers brings the main tools in ChatGPT —unlimited messages with GPT‑5.1 Auto, search, file uploads, connectors, and image generation—into a workspace where teachers can securely work with classroom materials and student information, collaborate with colleagues, and learn from other educators.
- Education-grade security & compliance: Anything you share with ChatGPT for Teachers is not used to train our models by default, and the workspace is built to protect student data and help schools meet FERPA requirements.
- Personalized teaching support: Tell ChatGPT to remember details like your grade level, curriculum, and preferred format so responses feel tailored to your teaching style and classroom. You’re in control of your settings.
- Connected to your tools: Build presentations with Canva in ChatGPT, and bring in lesson plans and files from Google Drive or Microsoft 365 so every chat starts with your classroom context, saving you time on prep.
- Examples from real teachers: Discover ready-to-use ideas and prompts from teachers already using ChatGPT, directly under the message composer in your workspace.
- Collaboration: Use custom GPTs to create templates with other teachers at your school or district, or co-plan lessons and presentations together in shared projects.
- Admin controls: School and district leaders can claim their domain to bring educators into one workspace with role-based access controls, and secure accounts with SAML SSO.”