New York City schools ban student-facing AI through eighth grade for one year

City will study AI’s classroom impact and release recommendations next year

New York City will prohibit student-facing artificial intelligence in public school classrooms from preschool through eighth grade for one year, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday. The policy affects roughly 600,000 students in the nation’s largest public school system.

The new policy bans student-facing AI use and prohibits chatbots across all grades. New York City schools will also introduce new screen-time limits during the moratorium period.

Mamdani framed the move as a rejection of the tech industry’s posture on AI in early education. “The tech industry wants us to believe that A.I.-powered early education is not only inevitable, but necessary,” the mayor said Wednesday. “We do not see it that way.”

The one-year window is structured as a study period. City officials said they will examine AI’s impact in classrooms and release a study with recommendations for coming school years. The announcement did not detail specific metrics under review.

Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels framed the moratorium as evidence-driven. “We’re standing firmly in our belief that innovation does not mean more technology,” Samuels said. “Over the next year, we will lead with evidence to make sure technology serves learning—not the other way around.”

The policy follows demand from parents for stronger tech guardrails in schools, including limits on screen time at home. Mamdani cast the policy as a deliberate pause rather than a permanent prohibition, with the city’s planned study intended to inform future decisions.

Teachers will still be allowed to use AI for instructional planning and other professional tasks, even as student-facing use is restricted. The moratorium includes exceptions for assistive technology used by students with disabilities and for career-readiness programs such as computer science.

The policy does not directly address high-school students’ use of AI in their own work. New York City schools are separately developing AI literacy classes for high-school students covering how the technology works, its ethical considerations, risks, and potential career effects.