Three simple steps to take to help protect NYC kids from damaging AI

Dec. 9, 2025

The forum on Saturday explaining the serious risks of AI use in schools was standing room only, and there were many others attending via Zoom as far as away as Idaho. Thanks for those of you who came! The video will be posted soon, but meanwhile, here are three important steps you can take:

1.     Call Governor Hochul ASAP to tell her to sign the LOADinG Act, Senate 7599C.

This bill was passed by the Legislature last session and would require privacy impact assessments, security audits, and tests for algorithmic racial bias for any AI program used by government agencies, including schools. It would also require schools to let parents and other members of the public know just which AI products are actually being used in  kids’ schools – something the DOE has refused to reveal even to their own AI Working Group. If the Governor does not sign these bills by December 31, this critical bill will have to be passed again this session.

Call Governor Hochul at (518) 474-8390, give your name, address and phone number, and say “As a constituent I am [upset/frustrated/mad] that Governor Hochul has not yet signed the LOADinG Act, S.7599C into law. I need her to protect NY children from having their education, their privacy and their environment undermined by the unrestricted use of dangereous AI tools in schools. She needs to sign this bill immediately! “

2.     Speak out against DOE contracts for more AI products.
Despite being taken off the Panel for Educational Policy(PEP) agenda twice and voted down in October, Chancellor Ramos has put back several AI products to be voted on again at the Wednesday, December 17 PEP meeting. This meeting will be held at 6:00pm at the Evander Childs Educational Campus (800 East Gun Hill Road, Bronx)

The proposed contracts include AI products made by the following four companies, none of which have been shown to improve learning through peer-reviewed evidence: EPS Operations LLC, Khan Academy, Kiddom Inc., and Lumi Story AI, at a total cost of $4.1 million over three years. Both Kiddom and Khan Academy AI materials have been found to be full of factual errors; and EPS collects and processes student voices, considered such sensitive biometric data that the state has advised parent input prior to its use Please attend this meeting and sign up to speak out against the purchase of these AI programs.

3. Encourage your Community Education Council to pass a resolution in support of a moratorium on AI use in NYC schools, so that rigorous guardrails can be established before any more damage is done to students’ education, privacy and the environment. For more actions and resources, including sample opt-out letters and CEC resolutions, check out this toolkit here.

Thanks, Leonie

If you think you might be able to attend the PEP meeting Dec. 17, please also respond to this email so we can coordinate.