Utah education leaders roll out Google AI tools for schools statewide

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah education leaders are partnering with Google to expand access to artificial intelligence tools in public schools, a move they said will help students develop AI literacy while giving educators new tools to support classroom instruction.

The Utah State Board of Education announced today that schools across the state will have access to Google’s Gemini for Education platform beginning in the 2026-27 school year.

State leaders said the platform can help teachers create lesson plans, develop grading rubrics and generate classroom materials, while students can use the technology for research, brainstorming and additional support understanding complex concepts.

“If you’ve heard of ChatGPT, Gemini is Google’s version of that technology,” said Matt Winters, AI education specialist with the Utah State Board of Education.

The announcement will affect Utah’s approximately 680,000 K-12 students and 28,000 educators. However, Winters emphasized that individual school districts and charter schools will ultimately decide whether and how to use the tools in their classrooms.

“This is LEA choice,” Winters said, referring to local education agencies. “We’re not enforcing that they have to use Google in their schools.”

Focus on privacy and safety

While the announcement highlights expanded access to AI tools, Winters said a major goal of the partnership is strengthening privacy protections.

According to Winters, many schools already use Google educational tools in various forms. The new agreement establishes a statewide data privacy framework designed to protect student information.

“Phase one of this project was really to get Google to sign our data privacy agreement here in the state of Utah so that we would protect Utah schools and their data,” Winters said.

Under the agreement, state leaders said student interactions with Gemini will remain within secure school-managed environments. Data and conversations generated through the education platform will not be used to train Google’s AI models.

“Most of these models that are made for education keep the data in districts or in schools, so it doesn’t train on that data,” Winters said.

The agreement also includes protections designed to comply with federal student privacy laws, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, commonly known as FERPA.

Addressing concerns about cheating

As AI becomes more common in schools, some educators and parents have expressed concerns that students could use the technology to complete assignments dishonestly.

Winters pointed to research from Stanford University that he said found cheating rates have not significantly changed with the rise of generative AI.

“Cheating hasn’t increased or decreased with the rise of generative AI. It stayed the same,” Winters said.

He said students who previously engaged in academic dishonesty often continue to do so regardless of the technology available, while most students use AI appropriately as a learning tool.

“By and large, most students, they want a good learning experience,” Winters said. “They want to engage with technology. They want to engage with the content area and actually learn.”

State leaders said part of the rollout will include AI literacy instruction designed to help students understand how AI works, evaluate information generated by AI systems and use the technology responsibly.

A shift similar to the internet era

Winters compared the rise of AI in education to the introduction of the internet into classrooms decades ago, though he noted there are important differences.

“It’s a similar moment,” Winters said. “There’s definitely some connections between the rise of the internet and the rise of AI.”

Unlike traditional internet searches, generative AI tools can create responses, explanations and content tailored to individual users, making it increasingly important for students and educators to understand both the benefits and limitations of the technology.

To support schools, Google will provide training opportunities for educators, and AI-related courses and career certificate programs will be available to students and teachers through December 2027.

State leaders said the overall goal is to help students develop skills they will need in a future where artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly common in both education and the workforce.

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