Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a one-year moratorium that removes student-facing generative AI tools for roughly 600,000 students while the district studies effects and offers limited AI literacy for high schoolers.
The moratorium applies to students in 2‑K through eighth grade for the 2026–2027 school year and covers student-facing generative AI and companion chatbots.
City leaders framed the pause as a year to study impacts and promote classroom interaction, citing a desire to keep technology serving learning rather than driving it.
New York City Public Schools banning AI use through middle school starting this year. The nation's largest school district said it will begin the school year next week with a sweeping ban on AI for students in in 2-K through eighth grade. The news comes as some education advocates have pushed for guardrails and formal guidance on AI use.
New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said the measure will help restore the critical thinking skills students need to graduate. "I use AI for nearly everything in the classroom right now," Texas teacher Lori Garrett said in a text message during the last school year. Stephanie Haridopolos, the director of health communications at the Office of the Surgeon General, stressed that all technology must be safe for children moving forward.
The city's AI moratorium does not apply to high school students. "We're standing firmly in our decision to not conflate innovation with more tech, and we're going to lead over the next year with evidence and make sure technology serves learning -- not the other way around," Samuels wrote in a statement. She touted guardrails for students' use of social media and AI.
The Mamdani administration is placing strict limits on the use of artificial intelligence in classrooms. The restrictions were released just over a week before the school year and come amid a national backlash against the use of artificial intelligence. [ more › ]
New York City’s public schools will temporarily ban students in elementary and middle schools from using artificial intelligence tools in the upcoming school year, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday. The one-year moratorium — part of a wider assessment of how children in the nation’s largest school district inter
New York City's public school system will ban artificial intelligence for students through the 8th grade during the upcoming school year.
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced a new policy today that will ban younger schoolchildren from using AI in classrooms. The one-year moratorium, effective in the 2026-2027 school year, will impact about 600,000 public school students in 2-K through eighth grade and is being introduced alongside additional
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Wednesday schools will discontinue AI programs for students below the 8th grade.
Deakin University's Master of Education (Leadership and Learning) is helping teachers step into leadership roles, with a strong focus on staff wellbeing and retention
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