New York City is shutting off generative AI for its youngest learners in the upcoming school year. For preschool through grade 8, the district is blocking "all software that uses student-facing generative AI," and it is banning companion chatbots for students across all grades. The policy covers roughly 600,000 public school students.
For younger kids, the district is dialing back daily screen exposure. For children in grade 2 and below, schools will cut back how long they spend using individually assigned devices. The city recommends a 30 minute daily cap for grades 3 through 5 and a 45 minute limit for grades 6 through 8. Context matters: parents have increasingly resisted classroom devices, and in May the U.S. Surgeon General warned that mounting research indicates harms affecting children and adolescents tied to "excessive and harmful" screen use.
There are carve-outs. A small set of AI pilot programs will run for high schoolers this year. AI use will also be permitted in career studies and for multilingual learners as well as students with disabilities. Teachers can keep using AI for planning and operational tasks.
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New York City says it will run a comprehensive review of technology tools used across its schools and will remove products if they are ultimately deemed not mission-critical for learning. The move follows Los Angeles Unified's sweeping policy that cut classroom screen time and largely barred devices in pre-K, kindergarten and first grade. LAUSD's elementary rules took effect last month, and the district anticipates serving almost 376,000 students this school year, excluding independent charters.
This is not just a coastal thing. An online crowd-sourced national tracker lists more than 80 active efforts in 24 states pushing school boards to set new limits on classroom devices and screen time. For families in New York City, this means clearer guardrails around what software kids can access at school and how long they're on screens throughout the day in the year ahead.
