Google is changing the AI settings on school accounts. According to a November 3 report from 9to5Google, Gemini, Gemini Notebook, Gemini in Classroom and Google Search will all be off by default on K-12 student accounts until a school administrator turns them on manually.
The report gives the reason search is on that list: search and AI are now "deeply integrated," so when a school disables AI features, students lose search too. For schools, this rule matters far more than shutting off one chatbot, because many classroom assignments and research habits are built around the search box.
From early 2027, only two options remain
Starting in early 2027, administrators will be able to pick between two configurations:
- The full version of AI features such as AI Overviews, switched on;
- Guided Learning in place of those features.
Guided Learning is what Google is pushing with this change, and it will arrive in Gemini, Search and Classroom. As Google describes it, a student who asks a physics question or requests a book report in Search gets steps that guide their thinking rather than a direct answer. The Classroom version is positioned as a one-on-one learning tool tied to course materials, and it also lets teachers see how well the whole class has grasped the content. It launches worldwide from November 3. The Search version starts this month as a pilot at some US schools; the report does not list which ones.
The report also mentions a workaround: 9to5Google described in May this year how a simple search modifier can largely remove AI content from results pages. Whether that trick will keep working on school accounts is not addressed in the report.
A change of direction within three months
Lined up on a timeline, this adjustment looks more like a retreat.
When Gemini was opened to teen school accounts in 2024, it was off by default and administrators decided whether to enable it. This August, Google's Workspace update announcement extended Gemini in Classroom to all age groups. The New York Times reported on August 14 that Google had turned Gemini on by default for many K-12 student accounts, when previously only students aged 18 and over had it on by default. The US children's media organization Common Sense then published a piece saying several administrators learned of the change after the fact, with nobody consulting them beforehand. The organization also rated AI Overviews and AI Mode in its worst tier, "Unacceptable Risk," saying the features completed the assignment for the student in all 180 homework tests and failed all five categories of serious-harm tests.
The school board in Frederick County, Maryland, has also publicly discussed whether to disable Gemini on student devices. Citing The New York Times, 9to5Google said Google's earlier school AI efforts drew strong pushback from educators and parents.
Pressure is coming from policy as well. New York City public schools have banned generative AI in classrooms this school year for students in eighth grade and below, covering about 600,000 students, and Norway has restricted AI use in school for students aged 6 to 13 since August.
What remains unanswered
Off by default sounds like handing the choice back to schools, but search is tied to the same switch, so the choice does not come cheap. A district that only wants traditional search without AI Overviews has no such option, going by what has been said so far.
Several points are still unaddressed: whether settings at schools that have already enabled Gemini will be reset during the transition before early 2027; whether students can bypass the Search version of Guided Learning; and whether schools outside the US will follow the same timeline. For readers in China, the change has no direct effect for now, since Google Search and Gemini are not available in schools there anyway. Its reference value lies in product design: who gets to set AI defaults in education, and how much basic functionality is left once AI is switched off.
Sources: 9to5Google, related New York Times reporting, Common Sense Media, CocoLoop, Google Workspace update announcements; administrator options and the pilot scope follow Google's public statements.