New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced a one-year moratorium banning the use of artificial intelligence in classrooms for younger pupils, alongside new limits on digital devices and a small pilot scheme for AI education tools. The policy, taking effect from the 2026-2027 school year, will affect roughly 600,000 public school students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, and reflects growing concern in the US and elsewhere about the impact of technology on children's development.

Under the rules, teachers will be barred from using AI to grade assignments, and companionship or mental-support chatbots will be banned across all year groups. Students will not be permitted to use AI until high school, where access will be limited to specific circumstances alongside twice-yearly AI literacy lessons, and individual screen use will be banned until third grade, with recommended limits such as 45 minutes a day for middle schoolers. A small pilot programme involving vetted tools including Quill, Edia, Brisk Teaching, Playlab and Intel AI-Ready Schools will run in up to five high school classrooms, while exceptions remain for lesson planning, students with disabilities, multilingual learners and computer science courses. Officials describe it as one of the most restrictive such policies in the US, following comparable nationwide moves in Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands.