Google will make Search unavailable to K-12 student accounts unless school administrators explicitly enable it, alongside new controls for its AI products. Schools that reject Google's AI features will lose Search entirely, Google told The New York Times, as reported by The Verge.
Administrators will have no separate setting that disables Gemini-powered features while keeping Search accessible to students. The changes, announced November 3, also put Gemini, Gemini Notebook and Gemini in Classroom behind an explicit administrator decision to enable access.
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A Change From Default Access
The policy follows Google's decision just months earlier to enable its Gemini AI assistant by default within Google Classroom. That app serves more than 150 million teachers and students worldwide, although the new access controls specifically concern K-12 student accounts.
Lawmakers pressed Google last month about placing its AI products in schools. Google says its revised approach follows input from schools, teachers, leading researchers and policymakers, and is intended to give school leaders control over classroom AI use.
Guided Learning Expands Into Search
Alongside the access changes, Google is bringing Guided Learning into Search for student accounts, with an initial pilot at selected U.S. schools later in November. The feature is designed to lead students through schoolwork using questions and intermediate steps instead of immediately supplying a finished answer. In Gemini, Guided Learning already functions as an interactive study aid that breaks problems into smaller parts.
Search will offer that assistance when Google's systems identify certain homework requests, such as a difficult physics problem or help preparing a book report. Students will receive prompts intended to help them reason through the relevant ideas. Google says its research has found measurable improvements in learning from Guided Learning.
Guided Learning became available worldwide in Google Classroom on November 3. Teachers can assign activities grounded in their class materials, giving students individual study assistance focused on those lessons. Teachers also receive live information that can help identify where their class needs additional support.
Google says it tested the Classroom feature with educators and schools before release, folding their feedback into the product. For the Search pilot, the company plans to collect educator feedback before extending the feature to additional school districts over the following months.
Google says it will give schools fuller details on the access controls in the coming months, before the changes take effect, leaving administrators time to get ready.
