New York City bans student AI use through 8th grade for 600,000 kids

The largest school system in the United States has told about 600,000 students to close the chatbot.

The moratorium

On September 2, 2026 Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels announced a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI in New York City public schools, from 2-K through 8th grade, starting with the 2026-27 school year. The city calls it the broadest generative AI prohibition in the country; it covers nearly 600,000 students, about two-thirds of the system’s enrollment. Companion chatbots are banned in every grade through 12th.

Teachers keep AI for lesson planning and administrative work. According to the New York Times, they will not be allowed to grade student work with it. High school students get a narrower path: five supervised pilot programs capped at 50,000 students, and two 45-minute AI literacy lessons a year covering bias, ethics and critical thinking.

Screens are rationed too

The policy pairs the AI ban with screen-time rules. There is no one-to-one screen time through 2nd grade, a maximum of 30 minutes a day for grades 3 to 5 and 45 minutes for grades 6 to 8. Mamdani’s summary: “Children need teachers and human connection in order to learn and grow.”

Why this one is different

New York banned ChatGPT once before, in 2023, and lifted the ban within months, saying the initial fear had overlooked the potential of the technology. The 2026 version is not a reaction to a single product. It sets a floor for the youngest students, defines a supervised on-ramp for older ones, and treats AI literacy as a scheduled subject rather than an incidental skill. Other large districts now have a template to copy or argue against, and the pilot data from 50,000 high schoolers will be the evidence both sides cite next year.