New York City Public Schools, the nation’s largest district, will bar student-facing generative AI for roughly 600,000 children in 2-K through eighth grade for one year, Bloomberg and CBS New York reported Wednesday. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Chancellor Kamar Samuels announced the freeze a week before classes start on Sept. 10.
The moratorium covers software that puts generative AI in front of students. Officials also banned companion chatbots for students, including in high school, CBS New York reported. High school is not under the same freeze. The district will run twice-yearly AI literacy modules meant to teach critical thinking, and limited pilots in a small number of high school classrooms.
Teachers cannot use AI to grade. They can still use it for lesson planning and operational work, officials told CBS New York. The district is also adding grade-based caps on how long students may spend on screens. Bloomberg framed the package as an AI ban plus screen-time limits for elementary and middle school.
“Children need teachers and human connection in order to learn and grow,” Mamdani said, according to CBS New York. “They need to develop skills alongside their peers, build relationships with educators and wrestle with tough problems on their own. The tech industry wants us to believe that AI-powered early education is not only inevitable, but necessary. We do not see it that way.”
About two-thirds of the system’s enrollment is in the covered grades. A coalition of students, parents, educators, and officials will review the freeze over the school year, CBS New York reported. The United Federation of Teachers backed the screen-time limits and said the policy “leaves many questions unanswered.”
This is a one-year pause, not a permanent statute. High school still gets a module and a few pilots. Eighth grade and below get a year without the chatbot in class.
The largest district in the country is betting that younger students can wait. The chatbot can wait too.
Sources
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-02/nyc-public-schools-ban-ai-for-students-restrict-screen-time
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/ai-ban-nyc-public-schools/