US News
New York City institutes one-year AI ban in elementary and middle school classrooms
The policy affects roughly 600,000 public school students while the district studies artificial intelligence's impact on learning.
The short version
- New York City announced a one-year moratorium on artificial intelligence classroom tools for elementary and middle school students, impacting about 600,000 children.
- The policy ends the use of 40 educational tools, sets screen-time limits under 45 minutes daily through eighth grade, and prohibits companion chatbots through high school.
- Exemptions are in place for students with disabilities, multilingual learners, career-readiness programs, and teachers using AI for lesson planning.
- The city will evaluate the ban's effects over the coming year while running a strictly limited AI pilot program for select high school courses.
Key facts
- New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a one-year ban on artificial intelligence classroom use for elementary and middle school students in the nation's largest public school district.[Al Jazeera]
- The moratorium halts the use of 40 educational tools across grades K–8, affecting approximately 600,000 students, while teachers remain permitted to use AI to generate lesson plans.[Al Jazeera]
- The policy restricts daily screen time to under 45 minutes through the eighth grade and bans companion chatbots through high school.[Al Jazeera]
- Exceptions to the restriction apply to multilingual learners, students with disabilities, and students participating in career-readiness courses like computer science.[Al Jazeera]
- The school district will conduct a high school pilot testing tools such as Edia and Quill under strict weekly time caps, and will provide two annual AI literacy courses.[Al Jazeera]
What remains uncertain
- City officials have not specified the enforcement mechanisms for the classroom ban or clarified how they plan to regulate or monitor student AI use on homework outside school.[Al Jazeera]
- City Hall did not provide clarification on what specific software falls under the high school prohibition on companion chatbots.[Al Jazeera]