New York City has banned student-facing generative artificial intelligence in public schools from 2-K through eighth grade for a year, affecting almost 600,000 kids as the city takes a more cautious approach to the rapidly rising use of AI in education.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels announced the policy Wednesday, saying the limits are meant to safeguard children’s development as municipal officials examine the effects of AI on learning. The prohibition will be in effect for the 2026-27 school year.
The strategy was predicated on a simple premise, said Mamdani: children need teachers and human interaction to learn and thrive.
“Children need their teachers, they need human connection to learn, to grow,” Mamdani stated.
“Young students need to wrestle with tough problems themselves, interact with classmates and build relationships with teachers, rather than depend on machines to give them the answers,” he said.
The new regulation is among the most sweeping student-facing AI limits disclosed by a U.S. school system.
It bans children from using software with student-facing generative AI from 2-K through eighth grade. Companion chatbots will also be banned in all grades.
The regulation impacts about 600,000 public-school children, or about two-thirds of New York City’s public-school population, city officials said.
The change comes as schools around the United States are wrestling with the rapid emergence of AI tools that can write essays, answer questions, advise students and assist with homework.
New York City had already enacted a more permissive AI framework, but the new administration has decided to put much of that student-facing tech on hold while it studies its educational impact.
This policy is not an absolute rejection of artificial intelligence.
High school students will receive AI literacy classes twice a year on the technology’s risks, biases, opportunities and limitations.
The city will also run restricted pilots with five verified AI educational programs in a number of high schools. Students in the pilots will use the device no more than 45 minutes a week and only under the direct supervision of a teacher.
those career-readiness programs, including computer science, also may allow students to use AI, and exceptions will be made for those students with disabilities and multilingual learners where technology provides critical support.
Teachers will also continue to be able to utilise AI for things like instructional preparation and some operational chores, but their usage of the technology will be limited.
The AI limits are part of a wider push by the Mamdani administration to curb children’s screen time.
Second-graders and below will be limited on one-on-one screen time. The city suggests 30 minutes of daily screen usage for grades 3-5 and 45 minutes for grades 6-8.
City officials also said that more than 38 existing educational technology projects that use AI elements would either have the features disabled or those programs will be stopped if they don’t match the city’s new safety and oversight requirements.
AI will become part of everyday life, particularly for today’s youngsters, Mamdani recognised.
But he said schools should distinguish between preparing young people for that future and putting children in front of technology before there is adequate proof that it is good for their development.
The mayor likened AI to other abilities that children learn at different phases of their growth, saying some technologies may be good for teenagers but not for very young children.
The city intends to utilise the coming academic year to evaluate the effects of the policy, gathering input from teachers, parents, students, education professionals and other stakeholders before determining what comes next after the one-year moratorium.
New York’s move comes as a bigger discussion is underway over whether artificial intelligence is becoming too firmly ingrained in classrooms.
Supporters of limitations say too much dependence on AI might threaten critical thinking, creativity and the productive struggle that’s part of learning. Meanwhile, critics caution that leaving students out of AI could leave them unprepared for industries where the technology is becoming increasingly vital.
So New York City is kind of choosing the middle road: they’re limiting AI for younger pupils but introducing older students to the technology in a supervised way.
But Mamdani’s core message is clear: technical development should not come at the expense of the bond between a child and a teacher.
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