Match the tool to the step where the student stalls. To get started, have ChatGPT for Teachers split an assignment into steps and Glint turn them into a visual checklist. To stay with a text, use Read&Write or Diffit. To hold on to what was taught, use Gemini Notebook or Knowt. Before any of them, decide what stays out of the prompt: a student's diagnosis and name.
| Tool | The job it does | Best for | Price (checked October 13, 2026) | Student data and privacy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT for Teachers | Splits one assignment into short, ordered steps | A teacher who wants a step list to check against the rubric | Free for verified U.S. K-12 educators; OpenAI's page gives the end date as June 2028 in its text and June 2027 in its meta tags | Teachers and staff only; OpenAI says content is not used to train its models by default |
| Glint | Makes visual schedules and supports from a text prompt | A teacher who wants the step list as a printed picture checklist | Free tier of 8 supports a month, $18 a month or $150 a year, as reported by Tech & Learning (August 3, 2026); no prices on the vendor homepage | Directory lists minimum age 18+ and US hosting; the vendor's "FERPA & COPPA aligned" line is unexplained |
| Read&Write | Reads text aloud with word highlighting, masks the rest of the screen | A student who loses the line or the place in a long reading | Everway says K-12 teachers get free access; its UK page lists schools from £1,250 a year; no US price found | Directory lists a 9ine security assessment; read the vendor's data policy before student accounts |
| Diffit | Rewrites a topic or text at several reading levels | A teacher who needs a shorter version of the same reading | Free Basic plan; school plans priced by enrollment, no dollar figures published | Vendor says it collects no student data; its page does not address model training |
| Gemini Notebook | Turns uploaded notes into audio overviews, flashcards and quizzes | A student who remembers better by listening and quizzing than by rereading | Included with Workspace for Education sign-in where the admin turns it on; no separate price found | Google says content in its enterprise-grade Education editions is not used to improve its models; under-18 access is limited |
| Knowt | Builds flashcards and practice from notes | Short daily retrieval practice | Flashcards advertised as free; teacher and school prices not shown on the page | Directory lists student data collection and US hosting, with FERPA and COPPA as declared by the vendor |
Where does the work stall for this student?
Four questions sort most classroom situations. This is our editorial view, not a vendor claim, and it assumes you already know the student well.
- Can the student not begin? The blank page and the unclear first step are the problem. Use a step list and a visual checklist: ChatGPT for Teachers, then Glint.
- Does attention drift partway through a reading? Use something that carries the text so the student does not have to hold it: Read&Write, or a shorter version from Diffit.
- Does it make sense in class and vanish by Thursday? Use short, repeated practice: Gemini Notebook or Knowt.
- Is it the whole day, not one task? Then a tool is the wrong answer. A student who seems unfocused or distractible across subjects may need an evaluation, and that conversation belongs with the family and the school's team.
Start with one tool for one stalled step, run it for two weeks, and ask the student what helped. Keep what they actually used.
What do the CDC, the Department of Education and ADHD organizations say?
October is ADHD Awareness Month, which in 2026 runs from October 1 to October 31, so this is a good week to ask what your classroom supports are actually doing. The CDC reports that an estimated 7 million U.S. children aged 3 to 17 (11.7%) have a current ADHD diagnosis, from the National Survey of Children's Health with data collected in 2024. The same page says about 30% of children with current ADHD received neither medication nor behavior treatment in 2022, up from 23% in 2016. On treatment, the CDC's treatment page (updated June 2, 2026) says American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations for children 6 and older include "adding behavioral classroom intervention and school supports."
On rights, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights issued a Dear Colleague Letter on ADHD and Section 504 on July 26, 2016. The Center for Parent Information and Resources summary says schools must base services on each student's specific needs, not on "generalizations about disabilities," and that a student who performs well academically can still have a disability.
On AI specifically, two sources are useful and neither is a study. Michelle Raz, an ADHD coach, wrote in Attention magazine from CHADD (June 2025) about reading apps, task-splitting apps, read-aloud tools and flashcard generators, and says AI should supplement teaching rather than replace it. The article cites no research on outcomes. Understood's guide to AI for inclusive classrooms, updated May 6, 2026, suggests using AI to break big projects into steps and to make visual schedules, checklists and short audio summaries, and warns: "never put any personal information about yourself or your students into an AI tool."
In the sources I read for this post, I found no controlled classroom study showing that any tool below improves outcomes for students with ADHD. Treat each as a support you test, not a treatment.
Is ChatGPT for Teachers the right tool for breaking an assignment into steps?
ChatGPT for Teachers is the best fit for turning one assignment into five or six ordered steps, because breaking a project into steps is an executive-function use Understood suggests and a chatbot needs no setup. The directory rates ChatGPT 4.35 from 23 reviews. Gemini (4.59 from 41 reviews), Claude (4.57 from 21) and Microsoft Copilot (4.67 from 12) do the same job. If your district already approves one, use that one.
Watch out for: The step list is a draft. The model does not know your rubric, so it may drop a required part or add one you did not ask for. Read it against the assignment before it goes near a student.
Pricing: OpenAI's announcement, checked October 13, 2026, says the workspace is free for verified U.S. K-12 educators. It gives the end of the free period as June 2028 in the page text and June 2027 in the page's meta description, so confirm the date before you plan around it. OpenAI says it "may adjust pricing" afterward.
Safety: OpenAI states that "anything you share with ChatGPT for Teachers is not used to train our models by default." Its page describes the workspace for teachers and staff and does not say students can use it. That is the vendor's statement, not an audit. Paste the assignment and rubric, never a student's name, diagnosis or work.
Is Glint the right tool for turning the steps into a visual checklist?
Glint is the best fit for turning a step list into a picture schedule, because its homepage says it lets you "create communication boards, visual schedules, and social stories in seconds" and Understood names visual schedules and checklists as a use for AI. The homepage does not mention checklists as such, so the schedule is the closest feature. The directory tagline calls it "AI visual supports for special education."
Watch out for: The directory has no reviews for Glint yet, so there is no rating to lean on. A generated picture can pick the wrong symbol for a step. Edit before printing, and check it with the student.
Pricing: Tech & Learning reported on August 3, 2026 that the free tier allows up to eight visual supports a month, with individual plans at $18 a month or $150 a year and custom school pricing. The vendor homepage I loaded lists no prices, so treat these figures as unverified at the source.
Safety: The directory record lists a minimum age of 18 and US hosting, which fits a teacher-run account rather than a student login. The homepage says Glint is "FERPA & COPPA aligned" without explaining its data practices. Ask for its privacy policy and a data agreement before putting a student's name on a schedule.
Is Read&Write the right tool when the problem is staying with a text?
Read&Write is the best fit for a student who loses their place in a long reading, because it reads text aloud with word highlighting and has a screen masking tool that hides the surrounding text. Everway's product page lists support for students with dyslexia, ADHD, dysgraphia and multilingual learners. That is a vendor claim. The directory rates it 4.50 from 2 reviews, a small sample. The texthelp.com address the directory still uses now redirects to everway.com.
The same page lists speech-to-text dictation, word prediction, a screenshot reader for PDFs and images, and an Audio Maker that turns text into MP3 files. It runs on Chrome, Edge, Windows, Mac, iPad, iPhone and Android.
Watch out for: Whether read-aloud with highlighting helps this student is something to test, not assume. Some students find it slows them down. The tool reads whatever it is given, so it does not fix a reading that is too long.
Pricing: The Everway page says "we offer free access to Read&Write to K-12 teachers," but its FAQ is less clear on which features stay free. Its UK pricing page lists schools from £1,250 a year, billed annually by enrollment. I found no US price.
Safety: The directory lists a 9ine security assessment for Read&Write; the directory's security assessments page says 9ine reviews assessed tools across privacy and data protection, AI risk, security and child protection. Student accounts through a school license are a district decision, so ask the vendor for its data security policy before enabling them.
Is Diffit the right choice for a shorter version of the same reading?
Diffit is the best fit for a teacher who needs a shorter version of the same topic, because the directory describes it as helping teachers "create and adapt instructional materials at multiple reading levels." The directory rates it 4.20 from 5 reviews.
Watch out for: Shortening a text can change what it says. Compare the short version with the source, as we recommend in our guide to AI tools for teaching reading, which cites Education Week reporting on tone and meaning drifting in rewrites. A shorter text is not the same as a text at a lower level, and a student with ADHD may not need a lower level at all.
Pricing: Diffit's pricing page, checked October 13, 2026, says the Basic plan is free and "remains available." It limits free users to content made in the last 90 days. School plans are a flat annual subscription tiered by enrollment, with no dollar prices published. Paid plans add export to Google, Canva and Microsoft, standards alignment and MTSS tiers.
Safety: Diffit's privacy and security page says "Diffit does not collect ANY student data." That is the vendor's statement, and I did not test it. The page does not address training AI models, and the directory lists no hosting location or minimum age, so ask the vendor about both.
Does Gemini Notebook fit for turning class notes into audio and practice questions?
Gemini Notebook, the tool Google renamed from NotebookLM in July 2026, is the best fit for a student who remembers more from listening and quizzing than from rereading, because Google's admin page lists audio overviews, flashcards and quizzes among the features available to users under 18. The directory rates Gemini Notebook 4.84 from 90 reviews, the largest sample of any tool here.
Google's admin page, last updated October 9, 2026, says the tool "is available to users of all ages with a few exceptions" and requires a Workspace for Education sign-in. Under-18 users can use chat, sources, standard and short Audio and Video Overviews, flashcards, quizzes and reports. They cannot use Interactive Mode in Audio Overviews, Cinematic Video Overviews, Deep Research, infographics or slides. The age table is dated September 23, 2026.
Watch out for: It works only from what you upload, and a generated overview can still contain errors. Listen to the audio yourself before you hand it over. The admin must switch the service on, so it may not be available in your building.
Pricing: The admin page gives no separate price; access comes with the Workspace for Education account where it is enabled.
Safety: For enterprise-grade Education editions, Google says uploaded files, chats and outputs "won't be reviewed by human reviewers or used to improve generative AI models." Standard access works differently, and Drive files are cached outside your data region settings. Both are vendor statements; your district's technology team should confirm which tier applies.
Is Knowt worth using for short retrieval practice?
Knowt is the best fit for a student who needs the same ten facts again for five minutes a day, because its homepage advertises flashcards as "completely free with unlimited learn mode" and turns notes into flashcards, quizzes and games. The directory rating is 5.00, but from one review, so it tells you little.
Watch out for: Knowt also sells an AI lecture notetaker that records lectures. Recording a class raises consent questions your district's policy should answer before anyone presses record.
Pricing: The homepage links to teacher and school plans but shows no prices, and it says study modes are not paywalled. I could not load a pricing page, so the paid tiers are unverified.
Safety: The directory record lists student data collection, US hosting and no minimum age, and records FERPA and COPPA as declared by the vendor. Those are the vendor's declarations. The homepage gives no age requirement, and I could not read its privacy policy, so ask the vendor for it.
What about MagicSchool and the other tools people ask about?
MagicSchool is the broadest teacher toolkit here (the directory rates it 4.74 from 19 reviews). Its pricing page lists a free plan, Plus at $8.33 a month on annual billing, 80-plus teacher tools and IEP creation. I could not confirm a tool that splits an assignment into steps, so for that job a general chatbot is the safer pick. We did not check Khanmigo, Quizlet or Brisk for this post, so we make no claim about their fit for students with ADHD.
What does a seventh-grade lab report look like with these tools?
This is a plan, not a record of a classroom. Suppose a seventh-grade science teacher assigns a density lab report due Friday, and a student with ADHD usually stalls at the first step.
- Monday, build the steps. Paste the assignment and rubric into ChatGPT for Teachers, with no student information. Ask for five steps, each doable in one sitting, and a plain description of what "done" looks like for each.
- Check them against the rubric. Delete any step that invents a requirement. Add any the model missed.
- Make the checklist. Turn the five steps into a picture checklist in Glint. Print it. Tape a copy to the student's desk or put it on the first page of the notebook.
- Carry the reading. Let the student hear the procedure handout read aloud with Read&Write, if your school licenses it, or give a shorter version from Diffit.
- Wednesday, hold the vocabulary. Upload your own class notes to Gemini Notebook, if your admin has turned it on. Listen to the short audio overview yourself first, then use its flashcards or quiz for five minutes at the start of class.
- Friday, ask. Which step helped, which did nothing? Keep one tool and drop the rest.
If this student has a 504 plan or IEP, ask the team whether a tool that works belongs in it. The student's rights run through the plan, not through a product.
What should you check before any of this reaches a student?
These checks come from the sources above and our own judgment, not from a vendor.
- Who is the user? Teacher-side tools (ChatGPT for Teachers, Glint) keep the student out of the account. Student-side tools need a district decision on accounts, age and data.
- What is in the prompt? Leave out the name, the diagnosis and the student's work. Understood's warning applies to every tool here.
- Is the output right? Read the step list, the schedule, the shortened text and the audio overview before the student sees them.
- Did it help? Ask the student and look at the work. The CHADD article offers no outcome data, and neither does this post.
For related reading, see our guides to AI tools for students with dyslexia, AI tools for students with autism, AI tools for writing 504 plans and AI tools for IEP writing.
Prices and plan details were checked October 13, 2026 from the vendor pages linked above, except where the text says a figure comes from Tech & Learning. Directory ratings are from aieducator.tools on the same date. The CDC, the Center for Parent Information and Resources, CHADD and Understood are the only outside sources on ADHD and schools; no vendor result in this post was tested by us.
