The largest school district in the US is banning artificial intelligence tools and restricting screen time for elementary and middle school students in the upcoming school year.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels unveiled the new rule on Wednesday, a week before classes begin on Sept. 10. It will apply to roughly 600,000 public school students.
The policy bans the use of AI among preschool through grade 8 students including “all software that uses student-facing generative AI.” Companion chatbots are prohibited for all grades.
“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,” said Mamdani in a statement. “That's why we're implementing a moratorium on generative AI for students in 2-K through 8th grade and spending the next year studying the impacts of this technology.”
The new policy comes as parents across the country push back against the use of technology and school-issued devices in classrooms. There are also concerns about the impact of AI on learning and child development, particularly for younger kids.
The US Surgeon General issued a warning in May of the increasing evidence of health risks to children and adolescents due to “excessive and harmful” screen use.
New York's announcement follows a similar move by the Los Angeles Unified School District, which adopted a sweeping policy that reduces screen time in classes and largely bans the use of devices in preschool, kindergarten and grade 1, that went into effect for elementary students last month. The LAUSD expects to serve almost 376,000 students this school year, not accounting for independent charter schools.
There are more than 80 similar active campaigns nationwide asking school boards in 24 states to implement new rules around classroom device use and screen time, according to an online crowd-sourced national tracker.
New York City's policy limits screen time on one-to-one devices for students in grade 2 and lower. It recommends capping screen time at 30 minutes per day for grade 3 through 5 students, and 45 minutes maximum for grades 6 through 8.
The ban, however, will have some exceptions — a handful of AI pilot programs will be held for high school students throughout the year, and use will be permitted for students with disabilities, multilingual learners or career studies. Teachers will be able to continue using AI for planning and operations.
The city school system says it will be doing an “exhaustive review” of all technology tools used in its schools and will bar tools “if their functionality is ultimately determined not to be mission-critical to learning.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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