Quick Answer
Turn lesson planning, differentiation, and classroom-material review into Claude workflows that respect student-data rules.
Primary-source note: Anthropic launched Claude for Teachers on July 14, 2026 for individual educators, and a separate school and district offering on August 28, 2026.
Key facts
What to know first
What you get and who qualifies
Claude for Teachers is free once you are verified as a US K-12 educator. Verification unlocks premium Claude capabilities, the Learning Commons connector, and teaching skills co-developed with Learning Commons and grounded in learning science. Anthropic says sign-up is open through June 30, 2027, and gives a full year of access. The offering is for educators only, consistent with Claude’s 18-and-over policy.
The connector matters more than the free access. It gives Claude the standards for your state, the competencies beneath each standard, and typical learning progressions, plus curricular resources including OpenSciEd and Illustrative Mathematics IM v.360. That is the difference between a plausible lesson plan and one scaffolded to what you are actually required to teach.
- Verify your educator status through Claude for Teachers.
- Connect Learning Commons before your first planning session.
- Name your state and grade band in the prompt so standards resolve correctly.
- Check your district’s AI and student-data policy before you upload anything.
Source check: Introducing Claude for Teachers from Anthropic.
Plan a lesson from materials you already use
The strongest use is not "write me a lesson on fractions." It is asking Claude to draft from high-quality instructional materials mapped to your standard, then produce the student-facing pieces alongside the plan. Anthropic describes exactly this flow: ask for a lesson, Claude draws on widely used curricula mapped to your state’s standards and the learning components beneath them, and drafts a plan plus materials you revise.
Give it the constraints a substitute would need: minutes available, class size, what students did last week, what they struggled with, what materials exist in the room. Ask for the plan and the exit ticket in the same pass so the assessment actually matches the objective.
Source check: Introducing Claude for Teachers from Anthropic.
Differentiate without rewriting everything three times
Differentiation is the task teachers say they have the least time for, and it is the second skill Anthropic ships. Hand Claude the material and ask it to adapt for different readiness levels: it builds a differentiation plan plus student-facing materials per proficiency level, with scaffolds for students who need access and extensions for students who are ready.
Ask for the reasoning, not just the output. A differentiation plan that names which scaffold addresses which misconception is one you can defend in a coaching conversation; a stack of three worksheets is not.
Source check: Introducing Claude for Teachers from Anthropic.
Analyze classroom work with de-identified data only
Claude for Teachers includes Claude Code and Cowork, so it can carry work forward on its own. Anthropic’s example is handing over a folder of instructional materials plus de-identified diagnostics, exit tickets, and notes, and getting back a picture of how the class is performing. You can also schedule a repeating task, such as reviewing each day’s de-identified exit tickets at 4pm and adapting tomorrow’s plan.
The word de-identified is doing real work there. Anthropic updated the announcement on August 28, 2026 specifically to make this clear: Claude for Teachers is FERPA-configured to process student records, but using identifiable student information requires authorization from the school or district, which is set up through the school and district offering. Whether and how educational data may be used is determined by your district and state policies, not by the product.
On training: Anthropic says it never trains its models on Claude for Teachers conversations, and that training is off for verified teacher accounts. Student information is covered by its K-12 Data Processing Addendum with FERPA-aligned protections.
- Strip names and IDs before uploading student work.
- Route anything identifiable through your school or district agreement instead.
- Keep a note of what you shared and why, for your own records.
- Treat Claude’s analysis as a hypothesis to check against what you saw in the room.
Source check: Introducing Claude for Teachers from Anthropic.
Connect the tools already in your stack
Anthropic lists K-12 connectors covering ASSISTments for auto-scored standards-aligned math practice, Brisk Teaching and MagicSchool for classroom-ready materials, Canva Education for design, Coteach for math diagrams, Diffit for adapted materials, Eedi for diagnostic questions in English and Spanish, Snorkl for class and assignment insight, and TeachFX for feedback grounded in real classroom talk.
Anthropic also released AI Fluency for PK-12 Teachers, co-created with Teach For America, plus a train-the-trainer module with the American Federation of Teachers. It is model-agnostic and Creative Commons licensed, which makes it usable in a PD session without a procurement conversation.
Source check: Introducing Claude for Teachers from Anthropic.
Prompts to Copy
Plan a [length]-minute [grade] [subject] lesson on [standard code or topic] for [state]. Use Learning Commons standards. Return: objective, prerequisite check, sequence with timings, student-facing materials, exit ticket, and the misconception each part addresses.
Adapt this material for three readiness levels in one class. For each level give the scaffold or extension, the student-facing version, and one sentence on which specific gap it targets.
Here are de-identified exit tickets from today. Group the responses by the misconception they reveal, tell me what to reteach tomorrow, and flag anything the data cannot tell me.
Cite this page
Claude Helps, "How to Use Claude for Teachers", https://claudehelps.com/teachers (updated 2026-09-19).
Primary Sources
- Introducing Claude for TeachersAnthropic
- What are projects?Claude Help Center
- Create and edit files with ClaudeClaude Help Center
- Upload files to ClaudeClaude Help Center
FAQ
What is Claude for Teachers?
It is free premium Claude access for verified US K-12 educators, with teaching skills and a Learning Commons connector mapped to academic standards in all 50 states.
How long is it free?
Anthropic says verified educators who sign up by June 30, 2027 get a full year of access at no cost.
Can I upload student records?
Claude for Teachers is FERPA-configured, but identifiable student information requires authorization from your school or district through the school and district offering. Use de-identified data otherwise.
Does Anthropic train on teacher conversations?
Anthropic says it never trains its models on Claude for Teachers conversations and that training is off for verified teacher accounts.
Is there a version for schools and districts?
Yes. Anthropic launched a dedicated school and district offering on August 28, 2026, which is also the route to authorizing identifiable student records.