New York City officials argue that children need teachers, peers and time to think before AI enters their education; some parents and advocacy groups agree with the caution but say the city has stopped short of the longer freeze they sought.

The policy, announced ahead of the 2026–27 school year, will prohibit AI use for roughly 600,000 students in 2-K through eighth grade—about two-thirds of the city’s public-school enrollment. City leaders have cast the measure as among the country’s toughest classroom technology rules.¹

The restrictions reach beyond generative AI. Individual student screens will not be allowed before third grade, while middle-school screen time is recommended to top out at 45 minutes daily. Companion chatbots offering emotional or mental-health support will be barred in every grade, and teachers may not use AI to grade assignments.²

Mayor Zohran Mamdani framed the crackdown as a defense of the basic work of school. “Children need teachers and human connection in order to learn and grow,” he said, arguing that students must build relationships and “wrestle with tough problems on their own.” “The tech industry wants us to believe that AI-powered early education is not only inevitable, but necessary,” he added. “We do not see it that way.”²

The moratorium is not an absolute rejection of the technology. Teachers can still use AI for lesson planning, and exemptions may be available for disability and multilingual-learning supports or computer science. High school use will be limited to particular cases, alongside twice-yearly AI-literacy lessons; a small, vetted pilot will test tools in up to five classes.²

Still, groups that had pushed for a two-year AI moratorium called the final guidelines disappointing. Their criticism underscores the unresolved divide: City Hall sees a guarded on-ramp, while the policy’s most skeptical supporters wanted a longer period with AI kept out of school altogether.¹