Three easy steps to have your voice heard on AI, and disturbing audit findings on DOE’s lax privacy protections

May 6, 2026

1. If you oppose the rapid and reckless expansion of AI tools being used classrooms throughout NYC, we have suggestions of how you can make your voice heard:

First, and most urgent: Please fill out the DOE 15-minute survey on the AI guidance. The deadline is THIS Friday May 8, 2026. For the last question, compose your response first in an email or doc, and then paste it into the text box. There’s no word limit.

Here is some suggested text, but the more personal the better, so add as many details as you like:
“The DOE should implement a 2-year moratorium on AI use, so rigorous protections can be developed to prevent harm to student, including to their privacy, their cognitive development, creativity, mental health and the environment – none of which this guidance sufficiently addresses.”

Our one-page critique of the guidance is here; our more detailed critique is here. Forward this message to others to encourage them to fill out the survey as well!

Second: Sign and share our petition calling for a moratorium, if you haven’t already. Not only is this an easy way to show your support, but it also means you can be updated on further developments on the issue.

Third: Call or email the Mayor, as he is ultimately responsible for what happens in our schools. You can do this by calling 311 or by sending him a message at https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/contact-the-mayor

A sample message is below but again, please personalize it if you can:

“Mayor Mamdani: You promised during your campaign that you would only move ahead with AI if there were “careful guardrails” developed in collaboration with teacher, parent, and student groups, and “only after careful deliberation.” And yet the Department of Education is now recklessly expanding the use of AI despite widespread parent opposition before any guardrails have been established, and despite its evident risks to student privacy, their cognitive development, mental health and the environment. I urge you to immediately institute an AI moratorium in our schools so that these guardrails can be established with real public input, to prevent real harm to our students before it is too late.“

2. The risks involved in AI use are even more evident now, since a devastating audit from the NY State Comptroller was released on Monday, showing how DOE”s privacy practices and policies are sloppy, irresponsible, and have led to more than a hundred breaches. Articles about the audit were in the Daily News and Chalkbeat .

Among the audit’s disturbing findings:

• DOE maintains no central records and thus has no idea which schools use which ed tech products and which personal student data they collect – meaning that they are flying blind.
• DOE has no written policies covering data classification, risk assessment, or backup and recovery in case of a breach or malfunction, contrary to the NIST security framework specified by Ed Law 2D, the state student privacy law.
• They have inadequate data security controls, including problems with system monitoring, unsupported systems, and firewalls
• Only 74% of DOE teachers and staff who handle personal data took the required annual privacy training in 2024, though 100% are required by law.
• At least 141 breaches of NYC personal student data occurred in the two years between Jan.5 2023 & Feb. 27, 2025, and in many cases, DOE missed the legal deadline by many months to inform the state or affected families.
• DOE also took an inordinate time to respond to the auditors’ requests, taking up to 2 months to schedule meetings and 5 months to provide relevant documentation.
• Yet in their formal response posted at the end of the audit, DOE refused to accept any of the auditors’ recommendations to improve their practices, instead claiming their findings were incorrect.

There are many more details showing how the DOE has utterly failed in its responsibilities to keep our students’ personal information safe from breach and misuse in my statement here; including how DOE officials do not appear to independently investigate breaches when they occur, but instead rely on the vendors to tell them which data and which students were affected, leading to delays in notifying affected families of more than two years, as in the Illuminate breach. I also explain how DOE allow schools to use products supplied by vendors even after these companies have been shown to blatantly and illegally fail to employ the most basic security protections, as in the case of PowerSchool, which is being sued by states throughout the country for their massive breach that occurred in late 2024.

3. On a related issue, I also want to remind you that if your child logged into Naviance at least once between August 18, 2021 and January 23, 2026, a college advising platform owned by PowerSchool that many NYC high schools use, they may be eligible for a portion of a $17.25 million class action court settlement, due to the company’s alleged violations of student privacy and federal wiretapping laws. Families were supposed to have been notified about this settlement by the  court, but I have yet to hear from anyone who has been informed, and DOE has so far refused to do so either.  More info here, including how you or your child if they are over 18 can apply for a portion of this settlement.

4. If you want to make sure we can continue our critical work advocating and informing parents on issues related to class size, privacy and/or AI, please purchase a ticket to our May 19 dinner honoring Diane Ravitch, or simply make a tax-deductible donation today.

thanks so much, Leonie