ChatGPT for Teachers expands to 55 more U.S. school systems, reaching 100,000+ new educators

OpenAI announced it is expanding ChatGPT for Teachers to 55 additional school systems across 20 states, bringing secure AI tools, training, and support to more than 100,000 new educators and staff. The program first launched in 2025 with nearly 150,000 teachers and staff.

The new cohort includes one in five of America's 20 largest public school districts, along with some of the country's most diverse school systems. OpenAI now works with more than 100 K-12 organizations across 30 states, providing free access and training to over 300,000 educators and staff.

The company also unveiled a 16-state National Data Privacy Agreement, described as an industry first. Built on the Student Data Privacy Consortium framework, it gives districts a common path to evaluate and adopt ChatGPT for Teachers without negotiating separate agreements one by one. The signed General Offers cover states including Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, with California under a separate agreement.

ChatGPT for Teachers remains available only to administrators, faculty, and educators, and stays free for verified U.S. K-12 educators through June 2028. Data shared in a workspace is not used to train OpenAI's models by default, and district leaders can bring educators into a managed workspace with role-based controls designed to support FERPA requirements.

In a privacy-preserving OpenAI analysis covering January 1 to July 16, educators sent more than 1.9 million messages related to time-saving tasks, including about 900,000 about report cards and progress reports, 800,000 about lesson planning, and more than 100,000 each about substitute plans and teacher-evaluation materials.

On the training side, OpenAI Academy, district partnerships, and a five-year initiative with the American Federation of Teachers aim to equip 400,000 K-12 educators with practical AI skills. This summer, more than 1,600 teachers participated in hands-on AI Skills Jams hosted with the Walton Family Foundation.

Early results are strong: 93% of Skills Jam participants said they left with something they could use again, and 96% said they planned to apply what they learned within 30 days. "By partnering with educators, our goal is to give teachers time, training, and a community to learn from one another," said Leah Belsky, OpenAI's Vice President of Education.

The rollout underscores OpenAI's position that AI should support learning rather than shortcut it, and that educators should remain in control of how AI shapes classrooms. As AI moves from answering questions to handling complex multi-step workflows, how districts manage governance, privacy, procurement, and trust will be the next test of responsible adoption at scale.