OpenAI is partnering with Fort Worth ISD to bring ChatGPT into teachers’ day-to-day work — a move some educators say could save them hours but that also raises questions about student privacy, training and how the district will monitor its use.
OpenAI is the company behind ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot that can answer questions, draft text and help users complete tasks based on written prompts.
OpenAI announced Aug. 26 that Fort Worth ISD is among 55 school systems across 20 states joining a new wave of ChatGPT for Teachers partnerships. The company says the tool is free to verified K-12 educators through June 2028 and that data shared in district-managed workspaces is not used to train its models by default. Information used to train an AI model can influence what the system produces later, raising privacy concerns if sensitive information is entered. In schools, that could include students’ grades, test results, disability information or other protected records. The partnerships also include training, support for district leaders and ongoing guidance.
While OpenAI described FWISD as a partner, the district characterized its involvement as being in the “early stages of exploring opportunities” to use ChatGPT.
“At this phase, our focus is on evaluating potential use cases and establishing the appropriate governance, security, privacy and instructional guardrails needed to ensure any implementation aligns with district policies and priorities,” district spokesperson Jessica Becerra said.
Becerra did not answer the Report’s questions about who would receive access, when a rollout would begin, whether use would be voluntary, whether the district would pay OpenAI or whether employees could enter student names, grades, test results, disability information or other identifiable records into ChatGPT.
Artificial intelligence is already part of Nicholas Moore’s job, the Fort Worth ISD English teacher said.
At Paschal High School, Moore began using ChatGPT regularly last school year. He has created customized versions using his own teaching notes and presentations and uses the tool primarily for lesson planning and, at times, grading.
He estimates ChatGPT can save him about five hours when planning a week’s worth of lessons, though he said that planning can still take him a day or two.
But Moore said saving time does not mean accepting whatever ChatGPT produces.
“A lot of editing and checking” are involved, he said.
He has caught the tool using outdated or incorrect state standards, for example. He said he does not enter students’ names, grades, test results, information from individualized education programs for students with disabilities or other identifiable information into ChatGPT.
Moore, who also helps write district curriculum, said curriculum writers have been told they can use ChatGPT to work more efficiently amid staff turnover and a smaller team. He pointed to the departure of the district’s literacy director over the summer as one example of that turnover.
AI doesn’t make him a better teacher, he said. Instead, it makes him a more efficient one.
“If you know your notes and know what makes a good lesson, then AI can help bring that out,” he said.
But the same technology that can help a teacher rewrite a lesson or draft an email can also handle far more sensitive information.
Erika Ramos, whose son attends prekindergarten at South Hi Mount Elementary, said she wants to know what FWISD will allow teachers to enter into ChatGPT — particularly information such as grades, assessment results, health information or individualized education plans.
“I would want to see the privacy agreement,” Ramos said. “I would want to see the policies, the training that the district is putting in front of educators.”
Ramos said OpenAI’s promise that teacher-workspace data will not be used to train its models addresses one concern, but not questions about who can access information, how long it is retained or what happens if sensitive information is entered accidentally.
Those are reasonable questions for districts to answer, said Hannah Quay-de la Vallee, a technologist at the Center for Democracy & Technology who has worked on student privacy issues for more than eight years.
Keeping information out of model training is a meaningful protection, she said, but it is only a starting point.
“I understand it doesn’t get used for model training,” Quay-de la Vallee said. “That doesn’t mean it doesn’t get used for anything.”
Districts should know — and be able to explain to parents — where information is stored, how long it is kept and what other uses are made of it, she said.
Quay-de la Vallee said schools should also emphasize “data minimization” — giving an AI system only the information it actually needs.
“The least you have, the least you pass around, the better,” she said.
Names, student identification numbers, birthdays and other personally identifiable information generally offer little benefit to a teacher asking ChatGPT for help and should be kept out, she said. More sensitive information involving disabilities or other protected characteristics requires additional caution because it can create both privacy and bias risks, she said.
And federal privacy law alone should not be the end of the conversation, Quay-de la Vallee said.
“Federal privacy law is the floor, and it’s a pretty low floor,” she said, arguing districts should create protections beyond what the decades-old law explicitly requires.
In a report released alongside the district partnerships, OpenAI acknowledges that AI’s effect on learning remains mixed. On one hand, it cites research suggesting that carefully designed AI tutoring has benefits; on the other, it notes a study suggesting that unrestricted use of AI could help students in practice situations but hurt them in actual tests.
That makes teacher training particularly important, Quay-de la Vallee said. A simple list of do’s and don’ts is not enough because educators will inevitably encounter situations official policies did not anticipate.
Tracy Bethmann Austin, a former teacher and parent of an I.M. Terrell Academy senior, worries about a different consequence: creativity.
Austin said she has seen students criticize AI-generated images on school social media posts and ask why student art programs were not given the chance to create them instead.
“It’s not giving the humans an opportunity to show their creativity,” Austin said. “They’re just relying on a computer.”
For Quay-de la Vallee, responsible adoption of generative AI in schools ultimately requires districts to answer some basic questions publicly.
“What data are you using? Where does it live? What does training look like?” she said. “And why are you doing this?”
Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @matthewsgroi1.
Disclosure: FWISD manager Pete Geren leads the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. FWISD manager Laurie George is a member of the Report’s reader advisory council. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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