For immediate release: Parents, Teachers, Students and Advocates Rally at City Hall for a Moratorium on AI in NYC Schools

April 16, 2026

Media Contacts: Liat@climatefamiliesnyc.org, 917-930-2788
Kelly Clancy, parentsforAIcaution@gmail.com, 512.589.6302

 

We gathered, spoke and delivered a petition to Mayor’s office, urging him to to lead and protect students 

New York, New York: Elected officials, advocates, parents, students, and educators rallied at City Hall for a moratorium on the use of generative AI in NYC schools following the release of the DOE’s “AI guidance” several weeks ago. Children and parents delivered a petition signed by nearly 2,000 NYC Public School stakeholders to a representative of the Mayor’s office calling for a  two-year moratorium, along with a national letter from Fairplay signed by 260 organizations calling for a five  year moratorium on student-facing AI.

Fairplay Executive Director Josh Golin said: “Years ago, Big Tech’s hype machine pushed Chromebooks and iPads onto schools, with disastrous results for students’ learning and well-being. Now, AI companies are trying to inject another untested technology into the education system. Our kids are not guinea pigs, and tech companies have already siphoned off far too many of our education dollars. Instead of chatbots and virtual tutors, let’s invest in the humans who really help kids learn and thrive.”

“Our students deserve more. That means substantive and fully funded public education for all. When we funnel taxpayer dollars on educational shortcuts, we put students’ privacy and safety at risk. We should be educating young people on the risks of AI usage and how they can responsibly engage with our changing world. Substituting important educational and privacy standards will increase the inequality vulnerable students already face in our classrooms. We should fund programs that support the development and equity of our schools instead,” said Council Member Alexa Avilés. 

“The way that AI is currently being used in our schools today treats our kids like guinea pigs, instead of seeking to protect them. Parents and advocates are asking for a common sense, science-backed approach, by creating guardrails through a meaningful process that includes directly impacted communities. The DOE’s recent draft guidance on AI fails to address the most common concerns, instead passing the responsibility on to individual educators and principals. We need this administration to meet the moment we are in by creating strong systemwide policy that prioritizes the health of children, not the profits of ed tech corporations.” said Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, Co Executive Director of the Alliance for Quality Education 

“Mayor Mamdani made a commitment to Green and Healthy Schools and implementing New York City’s climate goals when he ran for office,” said Liat Olenick, Parent and Program Director with Climate Families NYC. “Spending millions of dollars in public money on unproven, privacy-invading technologies that are fueling climate disasters, air pollution and water shortages is the opposite of that commitment. Our children deserve better than to be subjects of a surveillance experiment that will leave them a world on fire, and our city deserves leaders who will keep their promises and serve the interests of students and families, not tech corporations.”

“Mayor Mamdani, if you don’t use AI, why are you trying to make me and my friends use it?” Asked eight-year-old Alma, a third grader at a public school in Brooklyn.

Leonie Haimson, co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy said, “Right now, Mayor Mamdani is continuing the course that Eric Adams began – rushing ahead with the expansion of AI without careful guardrails or any actual consultation with teachers, parents and students, despite campaign promises to the contrary. The only group who had input into the inadequate DOE AI guidance recently released was an AI advisory council appointed by Chancellor Banks shortly before he left office, whose members were primarily DOE educrats and ed tech vendors. I was appointed to an AI working group by Chancellor Ramos, and though we were repeatedly promised that we would be able to give feedback on the guidance before it was released, we were never provided with that opportunity. Our petition has been signed by nearly 2,000 parents, educators and others, calling on the Mayor  to stop before it’s too late, and impose  a two year moratorium on the use of AI in the classroom, so that rigorous protections can be established to protect the quality of our children’s education, their safety, and their future. More than 200 education and childhood groups and experts including medical professionals signed onto the Fairplay letter, calling for a five-year moratorium.  We hope that the Mayor will listen and forge a new and more positive direction for our public schools.”

“I’m so proud that the AIM coalition led NYC in becoming the first city in the country to call for a moratorium on AI in schools, and to watch Fairplay call for a nationwide pause today. The mayor told City and State that he doesn’t use AI. Mayor Mamdani, parents across the city want to know: why are you forcing our kids to use technology that you yourself don’t use? Scientific articles in the past few months have warned of cognitive flatlining, cognitive atrophy, cognitive forfeiture, cognitive debt. Is this the legacy that Mayor Mamdani wants to leave the 800,000 kids we’ve entrusted to his care?” Asked Kelly Clancy, founder of Parents for AI Caution in Educational Spaces (PACES) and member of CEC 20. 

Zephyr Teachout,  Fordham Law professor said, “The DOE is exposing kids to AI without any protection,let alone real understanding of impact on student learning, privacy, emotional health, equity or algorithmic bias. This is a reckless decision, making children guinea pigs when we should be acting carefully and judiciously.”

“Proud to be part of a district and a parent body that is intentionally unpacking the use of AI in our classrooms, but deeply disappointed that NYCPS is not taking the same approach. The “guidance” released is wholly inadequate and leaves out how the consistent use of AI in education causes deep harm to brain development, mental health, critical thinking and problem solving. It feels like cognitive dissonance to acknowledge how screen time has impacted outcomes in our classrooms in the last ten years and at the same time “green light” the use of AI for teachers and students. In addition to paying hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts of platforms with   AI embedded in them. As the mother of Afro-Latine children knowing AI also racially profiles, surveils and produces racist feedback, I ask the Mayor and Chancellor to stand by their values and enact a moratorium of AI in our classrooms in order to put guardrails in place for our students in NYC.” Dr. Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, president of CEC4, medical professor and neuroscientist.

Edgar Alfonseca from NYC-DSA Tech Action said: “NYC Public Schools rushed and top-down rollout of AI guidance is not aligned with the New Era of city government promised by Mayor Mamdan which demands advocates and New Yorkers have a seat in the room and inform policy choices made by NYC government similarly to what is being done in other policy areas (i.e. Rental Ripoff Hearings). Permitting unregulated AI technology into NYC public schools not only puts students directly in harm’s way but also redirects precious public dollars to MAGA-aligned Big Tech companies. NYC-DSA Tech Action demands that NYC Schools Chancellor Samuels put the brakes on the AI guidance and pauses on any more AI tool deployment in public schools until advocates, parents, teachers, elected officials, and other key stakeholders have an opportunity to democratically decide what the future of AI in our schools looks like.”

“As an educator, I am focused on my students being able to think for themselves, and think critically, about literature and mathematics, social studies and science. The narrative that AI will somehow prepare these students for the future is ridiculous. What students need to be prepared for the future is strong literacy skills, strong computation skills, analytical skills, confidence in their own opinions and beliefs so that they are willing to disagree and discuss and explore varying ideas, the development of empathy, and a feeling of responsibility to community. AI provides none of these things. It is important to note that the very people who champion AI for other people’s children are protecting their own children from being exposed to many of these platforms, and limiting their own children’s screen times. We have seen this time and time again. There is no magic bullet in education. We know what works and we know what needs to be funded. We need smaller class sizes, culturally responsive curriculum and interdisciplinary project-based learning. Spending billions on edtech platforms and one-to-one devices will never result in better learning outcomes.” Martina Meijer, MORE-UFT, elementary teacher in NYCDOE.

Background: The Coalition for an AI Moratorium (AIM NYC) includes the Alliance for Quality Education, Class Size Matters, Climate Families NYC, Distraction-Free Schools NY,  DSA Tech Action and NYC-DSA Comrades with Kids, MORE-UFT,  NYC Kids PAC, Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, Parents for AI Caution in Educational Spaces, and Racially Just Public Schools (RJPS).

The NYC Department of Education is expanding the use of Generative AI in schools, despite growing opposition and evidence that it represents a substantial risk to students’ privacy, cognitive development, interpersonal skills, critical thinking, creativity, and mental health, as well as to the city’s education budget and its environmental justice and climate goals.

Photos of the event, along with 3^rd grader Alma and high school student Syeda Sara handing our petition and the Fairplay letter to Ailish Brady of the Mayor’s office, are here, here, and here.

Nearly 2,000 NYC parents, teachers, and concerned community members have now signed a petition calling for a two-year moratorium on AI in schools, and five CEC’s have passed resolutions in support of a moratorium. The Fairplay letter, complete with research links, signed onto by more than 200 organizations, experts and medical professionals is here.

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