New York City’s Department of Education is announcing a new policy that bans generative AI tools for students from early childhood through eighth grade, along with new limits on classroom device use.
The New York Daily News reports that the policy would bar student-facing generative AI for roughly 600,000 students in the system’s kindergarten through eighth grade programs. That’s about two-thirds of total enrollment.
Students in prekindergarten through second grade would largely lose access to individual devices in class altogether. Third through fifth graders would face a recommended cap of 30 minutes of screentime on individual devices, and middle schoolers would be capped at 45 minutes.
High schoolers would face “restricted” AI use. Students could still use the technology for literacy instruction, career and certification programs, and five pilot programs running in select schools. Exceptions across all grade levels include assistive technology for students with disabilities and English language learners, coding assignments, and e-books.
The New York Department of Education plans to assemble a coalition of parents, students, teachers, union representatives and outside experts to help shape the policy going forward.
Eric Dinowitz, chair of the City Council’s education committee, said the department appears to be responding to pressure from public hearings and community members. “The DOE is trying to be responsive to our hearings and community input from parents and advocates, but there are certainly still more questions about the details of this plan,” Dinowitz said.
The announcement caps months of arguing over how city schools should handle AI. Back in March, the department released draft guidance built around a “traffic light” framework: lesson planning got a “green light,” grading a “red light.” Critics said the draft ignored risks to student privacy and cognitive development. Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels later admitted the March guidance “missed the mark.”
The department had planned to release updated guidance in June, then delayed it after pushback from parents, advocacy groups and a bipartisan group of City Council members. Samuels asked principals to hold off on buying educational software until the revision process wrapped up.
Meanwhile, the AI Moratorium for NYC Schools Coalition, a group of parents, teachers and advocacy organizations, has pushed Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) and Samuels to adopt a two-year moratorium on AI use in public schools. New York’s largest teachers union passed its own resolution in late May calling for limits on both screentime and artificial intelligence in schools.
AI’s impact on education is a significant concern for all parents and grandparents. Like all aspects of AI, its application in education presents opportunities and landmines. Breitbart News social media director Wynton Hall has written his instant bestseller Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI to serve as the definitive guide on how the MAGA movement can create positions on AI that benefit humanity without handing control of our nation to the leftists of Silicon Valley or allowing the Chinese to take over the world.
Read more at the New York Daily News here
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.