New York: New York City will ban students from using generative AI in class from 2-K, a programme for two-year-olds, through Class 8 for the 2026-27 school year. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels announced the one-year pause on Wednesday. It covers nearly 600,000 students, about two-thirds of the largest public school system in the United States. Schools reopen on 10 September.
Mamdani said tech firms want people to think AI in early education is both inevitable and necessary. “We do not see it that way.” The city will spend the year studying what the tools do to learning.
He said he has not seen a study showing AI helps elementary or middle school students, except research paid for by companies that sell the products.
The ban covers software that students use to create text, images or other content. Companion chatbots are banned in every grade, including high school. ChatGPT and Claude will be blocked on school systems, CNN reported. The city will also switch off AI features in more than 38 programmes already in use.
City schools said AI can get in the way of talk, play and hands-on work that young children need. Mamdani said children need teachers, classmates and hard problems they solve themselves. “In no way, shape or form will AI replace student-teacher interaction.”
Samuels, who has a child in the system, said a school should stay a human place, and that “innovation does not mean more technology.”
The city also cut screen time. Children from 2-K to Class 2 will not sit with their own device. Officials recommend no more than 30 minutes a day in Classes 3 to 5, and 45 minutes in Classes 6 to 8. Teachers may still use a board with the whole class.
High school students will take two 45-minute lessons on what AI is, how it can be biased, and how it may change work. About 50,000 of them, around 5 per cent of all students, may join one of five small, teacher-led pilots. Mamdani said teenagers already live with AI, and schools cannot pretend otherwise.
Teachers may use approved AI to plan lessons. They may not use it to grade work or write special education plans. Students with disabilities and children learning English keep the tools they need.
In March the city issued softer “traffic-light” rules that said little about student use. Samuels later said that draft “missed the mark.” Parent groups asked for a five-year stop. A majority of the City Council asked for two years. The mayor chose one. Union leader Michael Mulgrew said the AI policy still “leaves many questions unanswered.” Child advocacy group Fairplay said a year is not long enough.
Students can still use AI at home. A new group of teachers, parents and students will review the year and publish advice.
