New York City bans AI use in elementary, middle school classrooms

WASHINGTON — New York City Public Schools is banning the use of artificial intelligence in elementary and middle school classrooms for the new academic year. 

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamadani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels announced Wednesday that the nation’s largest school district will have a one-year moratorium on AI use in schools for students, along with a new screentime policy. 

The sweeping AI guidelines will affect students in Pre-K, or 2-K, through eighth grade, encompassing over half a million students. The city’s one-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI will also include a study over the next year on the technology’s impacts.

“Children need teachers and human connection in order to learn and grow. They need to develop skills alongside their peers, build relationships with educators and wrestle with tough problems on their own,” Mamdani said in a news release Wednesday. “The tech industry wants us to believe that A.I.-powered early education is not only inevitable, but necessary. We do not see it that way. That’s why we’re implementing a moratorium on generative AI for students in 2-K through 8th grade and spending the next year studying the impacts of this technology.”

In addition to the AI ban for elementary and middle school students, the city will also place guardrails and limits on digital devices and tools. No individual screens will be allowed until the third grade. 

Teachers do not face the same strict limits on AI use, as they are allowed to use it to create lesson plans, translate material and write messages. The city will allow exceptions to the moratorium for students with disabilities who use assistive technology as well as multilingual learners and students participating in career readiness programs such as computer science. 

Additionally, the school system is banning companion chatbots used for mental health support across all grade levels. 

The city’s education department is also recommending limits on screen time, such as a 45-minute cap in middle school. City leaders framed the new policy as one of the most restrictive on technology in the classroom across the country. 

“As Chancellor and as a parent, I believe our job is to protect what makes learning work, while ensuring every child has the critical thinking skills they need before graduating, ”Samuels said in a statement. “We’re putting guardrails in place to protect the human connection, curiosity and creativity that help children grow. We’re standing firmly in our belief that innovation does not mean more technology, and over the next year, we will lead with evidence to make sure technology serves learning — not the other way around.” 

The city also announced it will offer twice-yearly AI literacy classes designed to help high school students “think critically” about the technology before they start to “rely” on it.

The city also announced that technology tools used in the public school systems will undergo an “exhaustive review” and will be barred if their functionality is deemed not “mission-critical” to learning. The review will include vendor accountability for safety and transparency standards, ethics, evidence of learning design and instructional impact, prior research and the continuous collection of user feedback, according to the announcement. 

“We have a responsibility to ensure that rapidly-changing technology supports our children and their learning, rather than getting in the way of it,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “New York State has been leading the way in our efforts to keep kids focused on learning and growing — not clicking and scrolling — and I commend Mayor Mamdani for building on this work and pushing our shared commitment to supporting New York’s kids forward.”