Google says K-12 student accounts will have AI and Search off until schools opt in

Google said on Tuesday, Nov. 3, that access to Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Google Search “will be entirely off for K-12 student accounts until school administrators explicitly turn them on,” according to a blog post by Chris Phillips, its vice president and general manager of education. The post says Google will share more specifics with schools in the coming months before the changes roll out.

The New York Times reported that the change comes early next year and that schools that restrict AI entirely will also lose access to Google Search. Phillips told the Times that “Search and AI are deeply integrated.” If a school has banned AI, he said, students “will not have access to search, and they’ll see a message from their school that indicates it’s not available.” NBC News reported that Google said the move would also cut off students’ access to Search if schools do not enable Gemini, given AI’s integration in Search. The Wall Street Journal’s Tuesday report says in its subhead that Google turns off the Gemini chatbot and Google Search by default for schoolchildren, and describes the change as following a Journal investigation and a bipartisan Senate inquiry.

For districts that allow AI, the Times reported, school-issued accounts will have two search options beginning in early 2027: search with AI Overviews and AI chats turned on, or search using Guided Learning, which Google describes as coaching students through problems step by step instead of giving final answers. Google said it will pilot Guided Learning in Search in select U.S. schools later this month, and that Guided Learning is available globally in Google Classroom starting Tuesday.

The Times reported that Google turned on AI features by default in Classroom in August for K-12 schools that had allowed students access to Gemini, which upset some school leaders, and that the August change will now be reversed.

Lina Khan, the former Federal Trade Commission chair, said in a statement, according to the Times, that Google is using its “search monopoly to coerce schools” into adopting its AI. “As the public increasingly pushes back against the use of AI in schools,” she said, “Google is making clear it will punish those who don’t fall in line.” The Times did not include a Google response to Khan’s statement in the text read.

The Times said New York City and Los Angeles, the two largest U.S. school districts and both Google clients, broadly restricted student access to generative AI on school devices in September. AI Tech Daily reported that New York City will bar student-facing generative AI for children in 2-K through eighth grade for a year, according to Bloomberg and CBS New York. The Times said Los Angeles Unified officials had hoped students could search with AI Overviews turned off.

On Oct. 21, the Wall Street Journal reported that Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Josh Hawley wrote to Google CEO Sundar Pichai seeking information on the effect of its AI products on children. In September, a former Google trust-and-safety chief warned that AI could harm children more than social media, Reuters reported.

Google says K-12 student accounts will have AI and Search off until schools opt in

Sources