SAN ANTONIO – Northside Independent School District is partnering with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT for Teachers to educators across the district, joining a growing number of school systems using artificial intelligence as a classroom and productivity tool.
NISD expects to begin rolling out the program in October. The district said teachers will not be required to use ChatGPT, but instead will have access to it as another tool they can use to support their work.
“This is just another tool in their toolbox, that when they are ready to use it, it’s available for them,” said Kris Trejo, assistant superintendent of technology services for NISD.
Trejo said the partnership comes as teachers and staff are already using free AI tools on their own.
“We’re exploring just the opportunity to participate in OpenAI’s ChatGPT for Teachers Initiative,” Trejo said. “It’s really just to ensure that those key principles we prioritize — information security, data privacy, accessibility — and ensure that they’re valued and protected, all while still allowing teachers access to those resources that they’re using and that they need.”
OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Teachers in 2025 as a version of ChatGPT designed specifically for educators and school systems.
The program can help teachers with tasks such as lesson planning, brainstorming, creating classroom materials, drafting communications and other administrative work.
OpenAI initially made the program available to nearly 150,000 teachers and staff.
Last month, the company announced partnerships with 55 additional school systems across 20 states. ChatGPT for Teachers is now available to more than 100 K-12 organizations in 30 states, providing free access and training to more than 300,000 educators and staff.
In Texas, the participating systems include NISD, Houston ISD, Fort Worth ISD, Dallas ISD, and several other districts.
NISD is San Antonio’s largest school district, serving about 97,600 students across 133 schools with roughly 13,000 employees.
Trejo said the district does not view ChatGPT as a replacement for educators. Instead, NISD wants teachers to decide when the technology can be useful.
The district already provides access to other AI tools. Because NISD uses Google Workspace, some teachers and staff have access to Google’s Gemini. MagicSchool AI is another approved resource.
Trejo said an important thought for the district is determining how AI should fit into teaching without letting the technology replace human decision-making.
OpenAI has made a similar argument about the role of educators. Leah Belsky, OpenAI’s vice president of education, said in an open announcement that the company wants AI to help teachers while keeping educators at the center of the process.
“Education has always helped young people prepare for the world they’re going to inherit,” Belsky said. “In the age of AI, students need educators and schools that help them build judgment, confidence, and agency with these tools.”
For NISD, one of the biggest differences between teachers using a free public AI tool and participating through a district partnership is the level of control the district has over how the technology is accessed and used.
Trejo said the district wants the partnership to provide a managed environment with security, privacy and accessibility controls.
“We essentially own how the application is accessed and used,” Trejo said.
OpenAI said ChatGPT for Teachers was designed with education-specific privacy, security and administrative controls. The company said information shared in a ChatGPT for Teachers workspace is not used to train its models by default, and school and district leaders can use role-based controls to manage access.
Trejo also told KSAT the district has an AI task force made up of technology and curriculum leaders that helps evaluate AI tools and consider how the technology should be used in the district.
Teachers with NISD will not be required to use the technology. Instead, it will be available to educators who believe it can help with their work.
Trejo added that the district will ultimately measure whether teachers are using the tool and whether it provides value.
“Success for us is allowing it and allowing our amazing teachers to start using it if they feel that it’s something that could be of use to them in the teaching learning space,” Trejo said.
OpenAI said ChatGPT for Teachers will remain free for verified U.S. K-12 educators through June 2028.
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