FCPS is partnering with OpenAI as part of the company’s first cohort of school districts piloting its new “ChatGPT for Teachers.” Released by OpenAI on Nov. 19, ChatGPT for Teachers is a version of the  AI chatbot specifically designed for educators.

“I can see how that can help a team write a rubric, or maybe write an assignment,” English teacher Nicole Lehman said. “But that would only work if you, as the teacher, understood what you’re asking it to do. I tend to just go old school and struggle through it myself.”

According to OpenAI, ChatGPT for Teachers is free until June 2027 for verified K-12 educators in the United States and includes unlimited messages with GPT-5.1 Auto, file uploads and image generation. By default, anything shared in the chat is not used to train the models to protect student privacy, but FCPS guidelines maintain that staff should not enter personally identifying information about students, staff or families into the chatbot. 

“In the English department, we’ve played around with Magic AI, and I can see the benefit,” Lehman said. “So to say that I won’t explore it, it’s probably not true. I think I owe it to myself and my students to be like, ‘What’s this all about?’”

FCPS’s partnership with OpenAI comes amid the county’s other initiatives to integrate AI in education. In October, the district reviewed its AI Principles and announced its 2026 Student AI Innovation Challenge. Then, on Nov. 3, FCPS hosted FCPS Forward: AI & The Future of Learning, an event announcing their partnership with Google and Playlab for their AI literacy initiative, Meeting the Moment.

“I’m not necessarily sure that I agree that students should be using it, and now teachers are using it, [but] it seems to me that we have to work with it or alongside it, and not against it,” Lehman said.

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