Please make your voice heard on tonight’s vote on Kiddom contracts!

Jan. 28, 2026

As I mentioned in my prior message, the entire suite of Kiddom digital products at a cost of $1.5 million was put back on the contract agenda for tomorrow’s PEP meeting, on Wed. January 28. The proposed contract document not only asks for the PEP to approve the entire suite of Kiddom digital products but also specifies the same three products that were voted down in December that are widely advertised and promoted by Kiddom as using AI.

The only change in the contract document is one inserted sentence: “Kiddom does not offer any student-facing or teacher-facing AI in their product listings for DOE use.”

According to experts, it is not a simple matter to extract data-mining AI functionality out of digital programs designed for that purpose, and even harder to confirm that this has been done. Moreover, DOE’s lax attitude towards student privacy has been shown by repeated data breaches, and the fact that many of their vendor contracts feature privacy language that is non-compliant with the law.

Moreover, DOE has recently admitted that their mailing house continued to send charter school recruitment flyers to parents, even after they had opted out of such mailings. And now we have evidence that the College Board has continued to sell student data, despite their consent decree to halt this illegal practice, with no enforcement action taken by the city so far.

Given this history and the wording of the Kiddom contract proposal leads us to the conclusion that it should be voted down yet again, until and unless the following conditions are met:

·       Rather than saying the DOE contract would be for the “entire suite of Kiddom products,” the specific products for potential use in schools should be listed, along with a description of their purpose and functionality.

·       In addition, Kiddom should be required to commission independent security audits and privacy impact assessments for these specific products, to be made public before another PEP vote, as well as audits for algorithmic biases, to ensure they are free of racial and gender bias.

If these conditions are met, then these products could be considered for approval at a later date. Each of these safety requirements would have been required of all AI products used by New York agencies including schools according to a bill passed by the Legislature last session called the LOADing Act. Unfortunately, Gov. Hochul demanded that these safety provisions be stripped from the bill before signing it.

Please attend tomorrow’s meeting at the Michael J. Petrides School (715 Ocean Terrace) at 6PM if you can, to speak out against this contract; which coincidentally Data Privacy Day.  I also have a sample message below that you can email to PEP members beforehand.

To learn more about the potential risks of using AI with students and the need for strong safeguards to prevent undermining their learning, safety, privacy and social emotional health, please listen to our Talk out of School podcast, featuring an interview with Rebecca Winthrop about her new Brookings report, A New Direction for Students in an AI World.

A sample message you can send to PEP members and their emails follow, but please change the title and edit the text to make it more personal to you. And if you do, please do this ASAP and before 6 PM tomorrow.

thanks Leonie

To: AGarcia141@schools.nyc.gov; AAlicea6@schools.nyc.gov; rizquierdo2@schools.nyc.gov; debra.e.altman@gmail.com; SAubin@schools.nyc.gov;  MDienstag@schools.nyc.gov; agreen419@gmail.com; bparsons.cec10@gmail.com; gregfaulkner1@gmail.com; aong3@schools.nyc.gov; odwinsharon@gmail.com; afair3@schools.nyc.gov; AGiordano16@schools.nyc.gov; ABogad@schools.nyc.gov;  yadirajimenez0@gmail.com; farajijones@gmail.com; CCasaretti@schools.nyc.gov; Mrstusky@aol.com; naveed@cs.columbia.edu;  jborelli727@gmail.com; msapp@schools.nyc.gov; AHo2791@schools.nyc.gov

Subject: Please require precautionary measures before approving the Kiddom contracts

Dear Panel members:

I urge you to vote no on the contract for Kiddom digital products which is identical to the proposal voted down last month, aside from a single sentence claiming that no AI will be involved in their operation or use. That does not alleviate serious concerns that these products will still operate with risks to students and potentially violate student learning, privacy and safety.

I hope you also take a look at the recent Brookings report that concludes that at this point, the harm of using AI in the classroom outweigh the benefits. If these products or others have been known to utilize AI, the following precautionary steps should be required: the vendor should commission and release independent privacy impact assessments and independent audits to ensure data security and the absence of algorithmic bias. Only then can we be better assured that these products will not harm NYC students’ learning, safety, privacy, civil rights and mental health.

Yours sincerely, [name, school, etc. ]