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The one-year ban
The moratorium covers all software with student-facing generative AI across the largest school district in the United States, which has 600,000 students. High schools are exempt, and Mamdani is piloting an AI learning program with 50,000 high schoolers. High school students will also get AI literacy classes twice a year, taught under direct supervision of a trained educator with vetted AI tools.
Screen time limits
He also recommended screen time caps of 30 minutes for grades three through five and 45 minutes for grades six through eight.
Reactions to the ban
Mamdani said he has yet to see a study showing that AI is beneficial for students in elementary and middle school. Julie Swope, a New York City member of the Democratic Socialists of America, said technology should not be mediated through a for-profit company that is enriching tech oligarchs further. Google, Microsoft, and Anthropic declined to comment.
How did school phone bans turn out?
New York State passed a law in 2025 requiring schools to keep students off phones during the school day, joining a growing list of states. Research on such bans is still new, and findings are mixed. A 2025 study in The Lancet Regional Health Europe, covering English secondary schools, found no difference in student mental wellbeing between schools with strict phone restrictions and those with permissive ones.
Why does school tech show mixed results?
In its 2015 report Students, Computers and Learning, the OECD analyzed PISA results from dozens of countries. It found that countries investing heavily in classroom technology showed no appreciable improvement in reading, math, or science scores. Students who used computers moderately at school did somewhat better than those who rarely did, while those who used them very frequently did much worse. The report drew on tests taken in 2012.
Who controls New York City's schools?
The mayor appoints the schools chancellor, a system state lawmakers created in 2002 when Michael Bloomberg was mayor. Before that, a seven-member Board of Education ran the district. The state legislature has renewed mayoral control several times since. The district's roughly 1,800 schools make it larger than most state school systems.
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