{"id":189832,"date":"2026-04-08T18:06:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/189832\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T18:06:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:06:23","slug":"parents-say-nyc-schools-ai-policy-leaves-out-what-matters-most-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/189832\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents say NYC schools\u2019 AI policy leaves out what matters most: students"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late last month, the city released its initial guidance on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in schools<\/a> and asked for public feedback<\/a> by May 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The response from students, parents and educators interviewed by Epicenter NYC was primarily frustration that the guidelines focus almost entirely on how staff and teachers can and cannot use AI, rather than addressing what\u2019s most on people\u2019s minds \u2014 what student use is permissible and what\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

The document states officials are developing \u201cresearch-informed guidance on instructional design that ensures AI supports \u2014 rather than substitutes for \u2014 student thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents we spoke with said the guidelines were too ambiguous, which makes it difficult to submit input to school officials. For parents of students with disabilities, the guidelines also leave unanswered questions about the extent to which AI can be used as assistive technology to meet their children\u2019s needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What the city does say about student use of AI<\/p>\n

The preliminary guidelines state that \u201cstudents may use AI for research, exploration and creative projects. Educator guidance, critical evaluation of outputs and age-appropriate context are required.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s little else that\u2019s official, the department has given a sense of where it\u2019s headed. At a media roundtable on April 2, city officials gave a few examples where AI can or can\u2019t be used.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI should not replace students\u2019 ability to think. It shouldn\u2019t create for them without their critical thinking,\u201d said Miatheresa Pate, the school system\u2019s chief academic officer. \u201cThink of AI in the sense of augmenting, like a thinking learning partner where students can brainstorm topics, they can get feedback on drafts, they can ask clarifying questions on complex concepts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students can also use AI for writing support, like developing structure when writing. She added that AI could be used in the classroom to remove barriers for multilingual learners or students with disabilities, Pate said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in all these cases the guiding principle is \u201chuman judgment, human use, human support,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are relying on the giftedness of our educators to be front and center around the use of AI within the classroom and ensuring that there is in fact an educational justification that a student would utilize AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teachers\u2019 tool<\/p>\n

By contrast, the officially released preliminary guidelines focus on AI and its use by teachers. Several parents we spoke with took no issue with what the guidelines have literally greenlit so far \u2014 the guide uses a traffic light system in which red means prohibited, yellow to proceed with caution and green to go ahead.<\/p>\n

New York City public school teachers can use AI to brainstorm ideas for lesson and unit plans, plan resources, conduct research, manage scheduling and format and summarize non-sensitive information. They can also deploy it to translate and create accessible materials for families and communities and to help draft some materials, as long as they\u2019re reviewed by a human.<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: New York City Public Schools<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTeachers have a lot on their plates,\u201d said Nicole Perrino, founder of a family resource guide, Bronx Mama<\/a>, who noted that AI can help lighten the load. \u201cThey still need to use their own discretion to tailor it to their specific students, but if it helps them create lesson plans and customize them for their students, I think it\u2019s just an extra tool.\u201d<\/p>\n

AI can help reduce logistical tasks such as creating test layouts, allowing teachers to focus on other priorities, said Perrino, an occasional Epicenter NYC contributor.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything should still be coming from the teacher\u2019s mind in terms of their knowledge of the students and what they want the lesson plan to entail \u2014 the big meat,\u201d Perrino said.<\/p>\n

Outsourcing students\u2019 cognitive skills<\/p>\n

But when it comes to students, the questions are trickier. Many parents worry that tools that reduce \u201ccognitive load,\u201d the amount of mental work required by a task, can also reduce the amount students learn and can even slow cognitive development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s taking away from the foundation they\u2019re supposed to be building,\u201d Perrino said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Such worries were backed up by a 2024 study<\/a> that compared one group of German college students using ChatGPT and another using Google search to gather research recommendations and to justify their conclusions. The students with a lower cognitive load \u2014 those who used ChatGPT \u2014 offered weaker reasoning and justifications and showed they were less likely to have processed or critically analyzed the information.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kelly Clancy, who holds a doctorate in political science, founded Parents for AI Caution<\/a> over concerns about her children, three New York City public school students. \u201cThe guidance document leaves NYC students uniquely vulnerable to AI being unleashed in the classrooms,\u201d she said in an email. \u201cIt lays a floor for protecting privacy without attempting in any way to consider the pernicious impact access to AI has on student cognitive development, learning [and] mental health.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clancy, who also sits on the community education council of District 20 in Brooklyn, added that the city guidance \u201cgives false nods to research saying this helps vulnerable learners when the opposite is true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such concerns are echoed by students: At a listening tour session held by new Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels at John Dewey High School in Brooklyn on the evening the guidance was published, students worried about the toll AI could take on their own critical-thinking skills and those of their peers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we move into the future, it\u2019s more than just taking a test and doing well and so on,\u201d said Nekena Randrianrison, a senior at Dewey who warned against overreliance on AI.<\/p>\n

One parent who belongs to the AI Moratorium Coalition, which Parents for AI Caution is also part of, called out the city\u2019s \u201cfaulty narrative on the so-called benefits of AI\u201d in a press release<\/a> in response to the city\u2019s guidance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we should be providing opportunities for our students to learn and understand engineering, technology and science, we should not be doing it at the expense of their cognitive development and their ability to be problem-solvers, critical thinkers and innovators,\u201d said Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, a neuroscientist and parent leader in East Harlem.<\/p>\n

AI as assistive technology<\/p>\n

The questions around AI are different for parents of students with disabilities. Jenn Choi, a special education consultant and advocate, has seen the power of AI-mediated assistive technology for some of the school system\u2019s learners with the greatest needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Choi, an occasional contributor to Epicenter NYC\u2019s coverage of special education needs, was surprised that the guidelines included no explicit mention of the role AI tools are already playing for students with disabilities, including reducing barriers to starting tasks \u2014 such as the anxiety her son has experienced that kept him from beginning an email.<\/p>\n

When Epicenter NYC asked about the role of AI-powered assistive technology<\/a> at the media roundtable, school officials said they differentiate between AI and assistive technology such as speech-to-text software.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, along the traffic light, those are very low-tech and they would be permitted to support students with disabilities,\u201d Pate responded. \u201cAs opposed to artificial technology, which in contrary, is not very inherently assistive when it comes to students with disabilities who require assistive technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Choi doesn\u2019t see how AI-powered assistive technology fits into the preliminary rules on what\u2019s permissible. One of her clients, a first grader with illegible handwriting, has been using a digital keyboard with AI-assisted word prediction. While trying to spell the word \u201csnake,\u201d he sounds out the first letter and types \u201cs,\u201d continuing the process until he completes the word.<\/p>\n

The use of AI allowed educators to see his writing ability in ways they couldn\u2019t before, both because the writing was illegible and because he wrote less due to pain.<\/p>\n

The goal is for AI assistive technology, like any scaffold, to eventually be phased out. But unlike this first grader, whose instructors direct him to limit use of autocomplete and speech-to-text until he has first put in the effort, many students with similar challenges may be using AI in harmful or inappropriate ways without guidance. It underscores the need for educators to teach students how to balance their needs and navigate limits, Choi says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to be taught, if it\u2019s out there like candy on a plate, to only use it once an hour,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Regulating this \u2014 and ensuring students aren\u2019t penalized for using AI appropriately \u2014 starts with city officials recognizing common uses of the tools, Choi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their attention, she said, should be on transparency in appropriate use, preventing misuse, and understanding how and why AI is used, rather than on discipline. Once students\u2019 reasons \u2014 which may range from skill limitations to time-management issues \u2014 are identified, those problems can be addressed while students are still developing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going anywhere \u2014 their parents are using it,\u201d she said. \u201cMaybe if they were taught how to use it appropriately, then maybe they can do it on the up and up, without being secretive about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials are asking for feedback before publishing a final playbook in June, via a survey<\/a> and public events through May 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Late last month, the city released its initial guidance on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in schools…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3250,66,2926,9,24,56,63,65,64,5271],"class_list":{"0":"post-189832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-doe","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-schools"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189832","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=189832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}