NYC bans AI use for K-8 students in classrooms, limits screen time

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced a new policy today that will ban younger schoolchildren from using AI in classrooms. The one-year moratorium, effective in the 2026-2027 school year, will impact about 600,000 public school students in 2-K through eighth grade and is being introduced alongside additional limits on digital devices and a small pilot program for AI education tools.

The new rules being introduced by NYC’s Department of Education will bar teachers from using AI tools to grade assignments, and keep students from using the technology in the classroom until they enter high school, with chatbots designed specifically for companionship and mental support reportedly being banned in all grades. High school aged students will only be permitted to use AI in specific instances, and they’ll be offered AI literacy classes twice a year to help students “think critically” before they come to “rely on it.”

“Children need teachers and human connection in order to learn and grow. They need to develop skills alongside their peers, build relationships with educators, and wrestle with tough problems on their own,” Mamdani said in a statement. “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.”

Use of individual screens will be banned until third grade. The department is also issuing recommended screen time limitations, which include a maximum of 45 minutes per day for middle schoolers. Teachers will still be permitted to use AI for lesson planning, and exceptions may be granted for AI tools that help students with disabilities or multilingual students. Exceptions can also be granted for particular purposes like computer science programs.

A “limited AI pilot” program will also be offered at up to five classes in a “small number” of high school classrooms, using tools that were vetted to meet safety and data privacy standards, and “keeping students as the primary thinker.” Tools being piloted by this program have set time limits for usage, and include Quill for English language support, Edia for math, Brisk Teaching for guiding study practice, and Playlab and Intel AI-Ready Schools for multi-subject support.

These changes follow NYC’s public school system introducing a bell-to-bell ban on “personal internet-enabled electronic devices” (including smartphones) for the 2025-2026 school year. NYC district leaders say the new AI moratorium for classrooms is one of the most restrictive policies in the US, though some countries like Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands have implemented nationwide changes to address similar concerns about the impact that technology is having on developing minds.