Google turned on Gemini for your students. Keep it, lock it down, or replace it?

On August 10, Google opened the Gemini tab in Google Classroom to K-12 students of all ages. For any school that had already allowed students to use Gemini, access was on by default. Many districts found out after the fact. One Ohio principal told Education Week he learned about it "from a news story, not from Google or official district communication."

Seven weeks later, most district leaders are choosing between three options: leave Gemini on, restrict it, or turn it off for students and use something else. This guide is for the people making that call. It covers what Google changed, what critics and Google each say, what other districts decided, the Admin console settings that matter, and a checklist and parent letter you can use this week.

A disclosure before we start: Flint makes an AI platform for students, so we have a stake in the third option. Flint appears only in the section on replacing Gemini, and for plenty of schools the right answer is one of the other two.

What Google turned on

Google previewed the change at ISTE on June 25 and announced the details on the Workspace Updates blog on August 4. "Gemini" now covers several products with different rules, so it helps to separate them.

Three more details matter for the decisions below.

Google has two age settings: under 18, and 18 or older. Students designated as under 18 get stricter content policies and lose some features, including Deep Research, Gemini Live, file upload, and image and video generation. There is no separate setting for students under 13.

Google treats Gemini for Education as a Core Service under the Workspace for Education terms. It says student chats and uploaded files aren't reviewed by humans or used to train its models, and that Gemini "supports compliance with COPPA and FERPA."

Gemini conversation history is on by default and kept for 18 months. Admins can search and export Gemini app conversations in Google Vault, and Vault retention rules and legal holds now cover them. Vault doesn't cover Gemini features built into other apps, like "Help me write."

The case against, and Google's response

Common Sense Media's Youth AI Safety Institute rates Gemini for K-12 "High Risk." Its August 17 explainer and January risk assessment make these points:

• Gemini "treats a sixth grader and a high school senior the same."
• Guided Learning "is easy to switch out of (and will write full essays or complete homework when asked)."
• Its handling of mental health and emotional support is "unsafe," and "once Gemini is on, administrators can't prevent students from using the chatbot to talk about personal, emotional, or mental health topics."
• Administrators "have minimal ability to monitor conversations, receive alerts about concerning content." Teachers can't review student conversations unless they're Workspace administrators.
• The rollout "defaults to adoption, rather than permission."

Teachers raise a different problem. At a Frederick County, Maryland board meeting, a teacher said, "At every single click, students are prompted to use AI… it's not a tool if we can't control it" (GovTech).

Google's position, as reported by Education Week, is that its June announcement gave schools time to prepare and that administrators can turn Gemini off at any time. Its data terms for school accounts are also stronger than those of consumer chatbots: no human review and no model training. What Google hasn't done is sign the AI safety and privacy standard that Microsoft agreed with the AFT on September 9. As of September 15, Google "has not said whether it plans to offer similar protections."

What other districts decided

Most of these decisions split by grade. Districts that say no usually start with elementary school, and districts that say yes usually start with high school. Middle school is where they disagree most.

Four questions that settle it

1. Which grades? Decide separately for elementary, middle and high school. A single district-wide answer usually fits one band and fails another.
2. What do you need to see? If searching conversations in Vault after a concern is raised meets your obligations, Gemini's oversight is enough. If you need a counselor alerted the moment a student writes about self-harm, it isn't. Google doesn't document any real-time alerts.
3. What will students use it for? Studying from class materials fits Gemini's Classroom tools well. Tutoring where the AI has to follow a teacher's plan, like holding back answers or sticking to one text, needs more control than Gems and Guided Learning give teachers.
4. What do your contracts and state laws require? Check your data privacy agreement with Google, your state's student privacy law, and any state requirement to adopt an AI policy. The Ohio section below shows how easily these get misread.

Path 1: Keep Gemini on

Keeping Gemini makes sense when most students with access are in high school, they use it for studying and drafting, teachers know the rules, and reviewing conversations after the fact meets your safety obligations. The cost argument is real, too, since it's included in the Google Workspace you already pay for.

Even if you keep the defaults, do these:

• Make sure every student organizational unit is set to under 18 under Account settings > Age-based access settings. If a student OU is designated 18 or older, those students get features Google reserves for adults.
• Choose a conversation history retention period (3, 18 or 36 months) that matches your records policy, and set Vault retention rules to match.
• Check Gemini usage reports (Generative AI > Gemini reports) monthly to see which schools and grades use it.
• Publish rules for students. Howard County taught an AI literacy lesson before turning access on, and made every assignment AI-free unless the teacher says otherwise.
• Tell parents what's on and why, using the template below. In Jeffco, the teacher guidance sits on a staff-only intranet page, so parents can't see the rules their children follow.

Path 2: Lock it down

Most districts land here. Gemini settings apply by organizational unit or group, so most of the work is in how your students are organized. If your student OUs aren't split by grade band, fix that first. Google's own advice for keeping Gemini away from some students is to "create an OU with only those users and turn off access for that OU only."

These are the settings that matter, with paths as of September 28, 2026. All paths start from the Google Admin console menu, and Google has changed them several times this year, so check Google's help pages before you rely on them.

A common setup by grade band:

• Elementary: the Gemini app, Gemini Notebook and Gemini in Classroom all off for students. Teachers keep their own tools.
• Middle school: either off, or Gemini Notebook only, so students study from sources the teacher chose. Some districts turn it on class by class using a group.
• High school: Gemini app and Classroom on, with written guidance on when AI is allowed on assignments.

Some problems stay even after you lock it down:

• Oversight is still after the fact. You get Vault searches and usage reports, not alerts.
• Once students have the Gemini app, you can't limit what they talk to it about. That includes the emotional and mental health conversations Common Sense flagged.
• AI Overviews in Google Search remain available to students under 18. Common Sense says nobody can turn them off, and we couldn't find a Google setting that does. Districts that want to block them do it through their web filter.

Path 3: Replace Gemini for student use

Replacing Gemini for students doesn't mean leaving Google. Districts that take this path usually keep Gemini for staff and use a separate platform wherever students work with AI. Some also keep Gemini Notebook for older students.

This path is worth considering when:

• You want students under 13 to have AI. Google has no separate setting for them, so districts that aren't comfortable with Gemini for younger students often end up with no AI below high school.
• You need alerts, not just records.
• Teachers need to control how the AI behaves, not only which materials it can see.
• Parents or your board expect teachers to be able to read every conversation.

When you evaluate any student AI platform, look for these:

• Teachers can read every conversation their students have with the AI, without admin rights.
• Concerning messages, self-harm above all, trigger an immediate alert to a named person.
• The AI knows each student's grade level, and administrators can set different instructions by grade.
• Teachers decide how the AI behaves in an activity, including whether it gives answers and which sources it uses.
• The AI won't act as a student's friend or counselor.
• The vendor signs a data privacy agreement that meets your state's law, doesn't use student data to train models, and deletes data on request. These match the questions the FTC suggests schools ask before consenting on parents' behalf (more below).
• Students sign in with the Google accounts they already have.
• You can pilot it with real classes before you buy.

Options include Microsoft Copilot, which Education Week reports arrives switched off and is limited to students 13 and older, and student AI platforms such as Flint, MagicSchool, SchoolAI and Khanmigo. Our guide to free vs. paid AI platforms for schools compares them.

Where Flint fits

Flint is a platform where teachers build AI activities and each student works through them one-on-one with an AI tutor. Against the list above:

• Teachers see every message their students exchange with the AI, and school administrators can see every conversation in the school.
• The AI flags concerning messages as the conversation happens, including self-harm, violence, harassment and sexual content. Self-harm flags are emailed immediately to the student's teachers and the school's designated moderators.
• The AI is told each student's grade, and school administrators can write separate AI instructions for each grade level.
• It's instructed never to act as a student's friend, counselor or therapist.
• Teachers write each activity's instructions, including whether the AI should hold back answers and which uploaded materials it should draw on.
• Students sign in with Google, and teachers can import materials from Google Drive.
• Flint is used with students under 13, with the school authorizing that use under COPPA and a signed data privacy agreement.

For a side-by-side look, see Flint vs. Gemini for Education.

Students under 13 and COPPA

COPPA covers online services that collect personal information from children under 13. The FTC lets schools consent on parents' behalf, within limits. From the FTC's COPPA FAQ: "the school's ability to consent for the parent is limited to the educational context… and for no other commercial purpose." If a vendor uses student data for other commercial purposes, or won't let the school review and delete it, "the school cannot consent on behalf of the parent."

The FTC's amended COPPA Rule took full effect on April 22, 2026. It left the school-consent rules unchanged, and the FTC said it would keep enforcing its existing guidance. It did say that sharing children's data to train AI isn't integral to a service and requires separate parental consent.

In practice, that means:

• The FTC recommends that the district, not individual teachers, decide which services to approve.
• The FTC suggests telling parents which services the school has consented to on their behalf.
• Its FAQ lists the questions to ask each vendor: what data it collects, how it uses the data, whether it uses it commercially, whether you can review and delete it, how it's secured, and how long it's kept.

This applies to every AI tool you allow for students under 13, Gemini included. We aren't lawyers, and none of this is legal advice. Your district's counsel should review any consent decision.

Ohio: what SB 29 and HB 96 require

Ohio tech directors have told us they block every AI tool except Gemini, and one said it was "to meet our SB 29 law." In that district, middle schoolers have no AI at all because Gemini "did not have a 13 and under version." Neither Ohio law requires that outcome.

SB 29, in effect since October 2024, sets rules for technology providers that hold education records under a district contract:

• The records belong to the district. The provider can't sell, share or use them for any commercial purpose, and must return or destroy them within 90 days of the contract ending.
• By August 1 each year, districts must notify parents of their curriculum, testing and assessment technology contracts and let parents inspect them.
• It limits monitoring on school-issued devices to listed purposes, with written notice to parents.

SB 29 doesn't mention AI, require blocking any tool, or limit districts to one vendor. Any vendor that signs contract terms meeting its requirements can be used.

HB 96 required every Ohio district to adopt an AI policy by July 1, 2026, and allowed districts to adopt the state's model policy. The model policy says appropriate use varies by grade level, users must follow each tool's terms of service including age limits, and tools the district hasn't approved aren't permitted. It sets no minimum age and names no vendor.

So a "Gemini only" setup is a local choice, often made because the Google contract was already in place. A district that wants AI below high school can approve another tool under an SB 29-compliant contract and add it to the approved list in its AI policy.

Decision checklist

Before you decide:

• For each student OU, record whether the Gemini app, Gemini Notebook and Gemini in Classroom are on or off today.
• Confirm every student OU is designated under 18.
• Confirm students are organized into OUs or groups by grade band.
• Pull a month of Gemini usage reports.
• Find your data privacy agreement with Google and your state's student privacy requirements.
• Check whether your state requires an AI policy, and whether yours lists approved tools.

For each grade band (elementary, middle, high school):

• Decide whether to keep, lock down or replace Gemini.
• Decide whether reviewing conversations after the fact is enough, or whether you need real-time alerts.
• Name who runs Vault searches, and when.
• For students under 13, confirm the district (not individual teachers) approves each tool, and that each vendor's contract limits data use to educational purposes.

After you decide:

• Apply the Admin console settings, then test them with a student test account in each OU.
• Set conversation history retention and Vault retention rules.
• Give teachers written guidance on when students may use AI on assignments.
• Send the parent letter below, and brief your board.
• Put a date on the calendar to check again. Google changed Gemini's student settings several times in 2026.

Parent and board letter template

Adapt the brackets to your decision. It works for a board update with small changes.

FAQ

Can schools turn off Gemini for students?

Yes. Admins can turn the Gemini app, Gemini Notebook and Gemini in Classroom on or off for each organizational unit or group. Google recommends putting the students you want to restrict in their own OU and turning access off there.

Is Gemini available to students under 13?

Yes. Google lists the Gemini app as available to all ages on Education editions, and the Gemini tab in Google Classroom opened to students of all ages on August 10. Google has two age settings, under 18 and 18 or older, and no separate setting for students under 13.

Does Google use students' Gemini conversations to train its AI?

Google says no. It treats Gemini for Education as a Core Service and says student chats and uploaded files aren't reviewed by humans or used to improve its models.

Can teachers see what students ask Gemini?

Not directly. Workspace admins can search and export Gemini app conversations in Google Vault after the fact. Common Sense notes that teachers can't review student conversations unless they're Workspace admins, and Google doesn't document real-time alerts.

Does turning off the Gemini app remove the Gemini tab in Google Classroom?

Only if Gemini Notebook is also off. Google hides the tab when both are off, even if Gemini in Classroom is on. You can also turn off Gemini in Classroom directly.

Does Ohio SB 29 require schools to use only Gemini?

No. SB 29 sets rules for technology providers that hold student education records under a district contract. It doesn't mention AI, require blocking any tool, or limit districts to one vendor.