New York City announced on September 2 a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI in its public schools from 2-K through eighth grade, effective this school year and covering about 600,000 students — two-thirds of the system. The order prohibits “all software that uses student-facing generative AI,” and companion chatbots are banned in every grade. Teachers may keep using AI for “instructional planning and operational tasks” if the tools meet the district’s safety standards. Students with disabilities, multilingual learners and students in career programs such as computer science are exempt.
High school gets the opposite treatment: not a ban but a requirement — two 45-minute AI critical-thinking sessions a year on what the technology is and isn’t, bias, risk, ethics and careers. The same order caps screen time at 30 minutes a day for grades 3–5 and 45 for grades 6–8. A new coalition of students, teachers, parents and experts is to study the year and publish recommendations.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani: “Children need teachers and human connection in order to learn and grow.” Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels called it “guardrails in place to protect the human connection, curiosity and creativity that help children grow.”
For the valley: the question New York just answered in writing — what students may use, at what age, and what teachers may — is the same one in front of Palm Springs Unified, Desert Sands Unified and Coachella Valley Unified this school year.