{"id":172646,"date":"2026-03-23T21:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T21:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/172646\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T21:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T21:40:07","slug":"nyc-public-schools-to-release-guidelines-for-ai-use-in-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/172646\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC public schools to release guidelines for AI use in class"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City\u2019s public school system on Tuesday is set to release highly anticipated guidance on artificial intelligence in the classroom<\/a>, Chancellor Kamar Samuels said during a City Council hearing Monday.<\/p>\n

The forthcoming guide, which education officials have described as a first step toward a more comprehensive handbook to be issued at a later date, is coming as families and teachers are deeply divided and anxious about the potential \u2014 and pitfalls \u2014 of the new technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur work to leverage technology responsibly continues with our foundational AI guidance, which will be released tomorrow and will include opportunities for community input,\u201d Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels told the City Council\u2019s Education Committee.<\/p>\n

The chancellor\u2019s comments at the hearing, which focused on the school system\u2019s proposed 2026-27 academic year budget, followed weeks of teasing the guidance at forums across the city, where he spoke of the pros and cons of integrating AI in schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of us, as educators, recognize that there\u2019s some potential in AI to accelerate some learning,\u201d Samuels said at a recent town hall in Manhattan<\/a>. \u201cThere are opportunities that we can take advantage of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut simultaneously, this needs to be done [responsibly]. We cannot do this without the safeguards that are necessary,\u201d the schools chief added.<\/p>\n

After the release, Miatheresa Pate, chief academic officer of the public schools, said during the town hall the system will open a 45-day window for feedback, before finalizing what they\u2019re calling a \u201cplaybook\u201d for schools and AI.<\/p>\n

Pate said it will be presented as a \u201ctraffic-light\u201d system. Old drafts obtained by the Daily News, which predate the Mamdani administration, are broken down by green, yellow and red lights: Allowed uses, uses that will require approval, and uses that will not be permitted.<\/p>\n

Students and teachers are increasingly using AI since the school system lifted a 2023 ban on ChatGPT<\/a> \u2014 but citywide policy has not kept up. In the absence of that guidance, several school and community boards across the city have passed resolutions calling for an \u201cAI moratorium,\u201d<\/a> with some calling for a pause of up to two years.<\/p>\n

Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said AI \u201cmust be used wisely\u201d and cannot replace the \u201chuman connection between educators and students.\u201d Where he has concerns, he said, is related to how education officials could use AI without proper oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchool communities want common-sense guardrails to protect their students and their students\u2019 data,\u201d the teachers union boss said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Watters, a third-grade teacher at Public School 229 in Woodside, Queens, said she uses AI in grading and lesson planning, such as working the hit animated movie \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d into her classes. She\u2019s also turned to the new technology to help specific students, such as translation services for those learning English or audiovisual supplements to math tests for struggling readers.<\/p>\n

Watters welcomed the guidance but asked that teachers be given a seat at the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of late in the game for the Department of Education already,\u201d she said. For example, personally identifiable information should be \u201coff limits\u201d for AI use, she assumed, based on student privacy trainings. \u201cI know that. But does everybody know that? The city is a big system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linda Noble, a social studies teacher at Brooklyn College Academy, created her own GPT-like large-language model about a year ago, which she named \u201cAlice,\u201d and trained it to interact with her in specific ways and to have a particular knowledge base.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very clear that I am the creator, and AI is the tool in my hand,\u201d Noble said. \u201cSo, I will use it to co-plan [lessons] with me. Also, when I get student work, it provides some qualitative feedback. It\u2019s not giving the grades. I can look at that individually to customize the next lesson, and I can look at it in aggregate,\u201d she continued. \u201cSo AI, in that sense, is making me a better teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noble\u2019s students do not interact with her GPT.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is based on existing data, and there are biases in existing data. It gives probable answers that are not always accurate answers. So, there needs to be a critical consciousness around the use of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The guidance comes as the local debate over AI in education<\/a>\u00a0has hit a fever pitch with a proposal for an AI-focused public school<\/a>, as first reported by Chalkbeat and Gothamist. As of Monday afternoon, an online petition against the creation of Next Generation Technology High School<\/a> in FiDi had amassed close to 1,300 signatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that\u2019s infuriating to me is that they continue to not only use AI, but expand AI,\u201d said Leonie Haimson, co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy. \u201cThere\u2019s additional research put out [that] AI is spreading falsehoods, undermining skills development and creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these things are really seriously potential harms to kids\u2019 education, not to mention the privacy issue,\u201d said Haimson, who also sits on the school system\u2019s AI working group. \u201cWhatever the playbook has or doesn\u2019t have, it\u2019s not gonna allay the concerns of parents, teachers and others who really want a human-centered education.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City\u2019s public school system on Tuesday is set to release highly anticipated guidance on artificial intelligence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[67,85,267,9,24,264,12,56,63,65,64],"class_list":["post-172646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-education","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}