NYC schools pause classroom AI after parent pressure

Brooklyn parent Craig Garrett said he was shocked to learn his 5-year-old daughter had been using an AI-enabled reading program at school, a discovery that helped draw him into AIM, a parent coalition seeking a moratorium on classroom AI. Members said they felt blindsided by how extensively the technology was being used and worried about student data, screen time, and chatbots substituting for teachers.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration sided with the anti-AI parents for now, imposing a one-year moratorium on student-facing AI platforms in New York City public schools for elementary and middle school students. Amira, the program Garrett’s daughter used, will have its AI features turned off, though the company said its software cannot answer open-ended questions, access the public internet, or say anything not approved by a reading expert.

The new rules still allow teachers to use generative AI for lesson planning, but not for grading. High school students will receive AI literacy instruction and limited access to five pilot AI programs, none of them chatbots. Supporters of AI in schools, including National Parents Union president Keri Rodrigues, criticized the policy as too broad, while neuroscientist Kaliris Salas-Ramirez backed the pause over concerns about children’s problem-solving development.