Overview
- Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels announced the policy on Sept. 2, 2026, imposing a one‑year moratorium for the 2026–2027 school year that will cover about 600,000 students, roughly two‑thirds of the district.
- The ban bars student‑facing generative AI from pre‑K/2‑K through eighth grade, prohibits companion chatbots at all grades, and directs the city to remove or disable AI functions in more than 38 approved educational programs.
- Teachers may use approved AI tools for lesson planning, translation and administrative tasks but may not use AI to grade work or make major student decisions such as promotions or crisis counseling.
- High schools will see limited, supervised pilots of up to about 50,000 students across a small number of programs and two short AI‑literacy modules per year, while the DOE recommends daily screen‑time caps of 30 minutes for grades 3–5 and 45 minutes for grades 6–8.
- The new Technology in Schools Coalition of parents, educators, students and specialists will monitor outcomes and recommend next steps, and stakeholders have raised questions about enforcement, product standards and whether one year is sufficient.