New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has introduced a new policy that prohibits younger schoolchildren from using artificial intelligence in educational settings. Effective for the 2026-2027 school year, this one-year moratorium impacts approximately 600,000 public school students in grades 2-K through eighth grade. The initiative is introduced alongside new limits on digital devices and a pilot program for AI education tools.
The Department of Education will bar teachers from using AI for grading assignments and prohibit students from utilizing the technology in the classroom until high school. Companion chatbots intended for mental support are banned across all grades. High school students may only use AI in specific instances, receiving AI literacy classes twice a year to encourage critical thinking rather than reliance on the tools.
"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," Mayor Mamdani stated. "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."
The policy also bans individual screens until the third grade and recommends a maximum daily screen time of 45 minutes for middle schoolers. Teachers remain allowed to use AI for lesson planning, with exceptions granted for students with disabilities, multilingual learners, and computer science programs.
A limited AI pilot program will be offered in up to five high school classrooms using vetted tools such as Quill, Edia, and Intel AI-Ready Schools, all designed to keep students as the primary thinkers with strict usage limits. These changes follow a previous ban on personal internet-enabled devices and represent one of the most restrictive AI policies in the U.S., similar to regulations seen in Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands.
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