OpenAI said on August 26, 2026 that it is expanding ChatGPT for Teachers to 55 additional school systems in 20 states, adding more than 100,000 educators and staff. The company reported that, with the new cohort, it now works with over 100 K–12 organizations across 30 states and provides free access and training to more than 300,000 educators and staff.
District expansion and access
ChatGPT for Teachers was introduced in 2025 to nearly 150,000 teachers and staff. OpenAI said the tool remains available only to administrators, faculty, and verified U.S. K–12 educators, and will be free for verified U.S. K–12 educators through June 2028. The new district partners include large and diverse systems, with 1 in 5 of America’s 20 largest public school districts among the cohort.
Privacy, training, and classroom use
To support district adoption, OpenAI announced a National Data Privacy Agreement based on the Student Data Privacy Consortium framework that covers 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. OpenAI said data shared in a ChatGPT for Teachers workspace is not used to train its models by default and that districts can create managed workspaces with role-based controls designed to support FERPA requirements.
OpenAI described a shared implementation model that pairs hands-on training and peer learning with district-level governance. The company cited a privacy-preserving analysis from January 1 to July 16 showing educators sent more than 1.9 million messages about time-saving tasks: about 900,000 related to report cards and progress reports, 800,000 about lesson planning, and more than 100,000 about substitute plans and teacher-evaluation materials. The K-12 Educator plugin and administrative controls were noted as tools to support lesson planning, adapting materials, and other classroom workflows.
OpenAI also highlighted training programs: OpenAI Academy sessions, a five-year National Academy for AI Instruction partnership with the American Federation of Teachers to reach 400,000 K–12 educators, and summer AI Skills Jams that involved more than 1,600 teachers, administrators, and district leaders. According to OpenAI, 93% of Skills Jam participants said they left with something they could use again and 96% planned to apply what they learned within 30 days.
Examples of new district partners named by OpenAI include Abilene Independent School District (TX), Township High School District 211 (IL), Sarasota County Schools (FL), Lynwood Unified, and Ventura Unified School District (CA).
Original source: OpenAI News