{"id":343143,"date":"2026-09-10T19:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T19:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/343143\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T19:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T19:58:10","slug":"back-to-school-in-nyc-new-ai-and-screen-limits-offer-relief-to-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/343143\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to school in NYC: New AI and screen limits offer relief to parents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

The school year started Thursday with a new policy restricting artificial intelligence and screen time for New York City\u2019s youngest students, and many parents feel relieved. <\/p>\n

They welcome the limits, not only for what they mean in the classroom but also for what they could mean at home: Parents hope the policy will help them rein in their children\u2019s screen time and AI use \u2014 and potentially quell some of the battles they have with their kids over those limits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really appreciate there\u2019s a rule,\u201d said Julia Jackson, a Brooklyn mom to twin 10-year-olds in fifth grade and twin 9-year-olds in fourth grade. \u201cThen I can point to the rule. I\u2019m not on my own navigating this crazy jungle of newness, of technology all the time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Thursday marked the start of a yearlong moratorium on student-facing generative AI tools,<\/a> such as chatbots and tutors that respond to prompts, in preschool through eighth-grade classrooms. The policy allows limited AI use in high school.<\/p>\n

\"AdultsBrooklyn’s P.S. 235 welcomes students back to school on Thursday. (Alex Zimmerman \/ Chalkbeat) <\/p>\n

For screen time, the Education Department is banning individual devices from preschool through second grade<\/a>. Students in grades 3-5 can use individual devices for up to 30 minutes a day, and in middle school, the limit is 45 minutes, per the policy\u2019s recommendations. There are no screen time guidelines for high school.<\/p>\n

The new policy<\/a> was crafted after a groundswell of parent pushback to AI and technology use in schools. When announcing the guidance, Mayor Zohran Mamdani called it the \u201cbroadest generative AI moratorium in the nation.\u201d The next day, however, Los Angeles announced an even more restrictive policy,<\/a> limiting AI use for high schoolers. <\/p>\n

Unanswered questions, but welcome support<\/p>\n

Questions remain. Although New York City officials plan to convene a coalition of educators, students, parents, union officials, and experts to help assess the policy and consider future changes, they have offered few specifics on how they plan to ensure schools adhere to the AI policy and follow the recommended screen time limits. Still, several parents said Thursday that they planned to use the new policy as a jumping-off point for discussions with their kids about AI use and screens.<\/p>\n

Jackson, who considers herself \u201canti-screen-time,\u201d has not allowed her kids to have phones or iPads, much to their dismay because they claim they are the only ones without such devices. She\u2019s glad more families are trying to delay giving their kids devices, too, and hopes the school system\u2019s policy will help shape that conversation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to hold out as long as we can,\u201d she said. \u201cIt helps that other parents feel the same way, but it\u2019s tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bora Lee, who has a sixth grader at the Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School and a fourth grader at P.S. 107 in Park Slope, plans to sit down with her children this weekend to discuss the school policy and set boundaries around how \u2014 and where \u2014 they use their Chromebooks. Lee said she plans to have them only use their devices in the living room, rather than their bedrooms, to keep better tabs on what they\u2019re searching.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be easier to have the conversations at home about screen time limits because school is setting limits, and so hopefully there will be fewer battles over it,\u201d Lee said. \u201cMy children do better when we say, \u2018Well, school says that really you should only be using 30 minutes,\u2019 and they are more likely to stick to that guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"StudentsStudents returned to P.S. 107 in Brooklyn on Thursday for the first day of school. (Amy Zimmer \/ Chalkbeat) <\/p>\n

Lee was surprised last year to find her older daughter had used AI, perhaps unintentionally when searching on Google, to write a paragraph for a school assignment. It \u201cfreaked\u201d Lee out, she said, and prompted her to seek guidance from the school on navigating AI use. <\/p>\n

The new guidance, however, doesn\u2019t address students\u2019 use of AI for homework. <\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

Every weekday morning, Chalkbeat New York is bringing thousands of subscribers the news on public schools and education policy that they need to start their day. Sign up for our free newsletter to join them.<\/p>\n

Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels told reporters Thursday that school leaders and superintendents will assess how well the overall policy is working. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who know schools best \u2014 our principals, our superintendents \u2014 they\u2019re going to be looking at what implementation looks like on a daily basis,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Samuels also emphasized that the screen time limits for grades 3-8 are guidelines and said he did not expect schools to enforce them strictly. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is not to go around and say you\u2019re at 31 minutes,\u201d he said, noting that the \u201cspirit\u201d of the policy is to move students away from screens when possible.<\/p>\n

Not all parents and students are on board with new policies<\/p>\n

Nickel Douglas, whose fourth grader attends P.S. 235 in Brooklyn\u2019s East Flatbush neighborhood, didn\u2019t think AI belonged in the classroom but said her daughter has occasionally used ChatGPT to help guide her when she\u2019s stuck on a math problem or other schoolwork. <\/p>\n

Douglas said she was disappointed with the limits on individual devices. The school had previously provided a laptop to her daughter, which she found easier to transport to and from school than a stack of books. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think she learns more on the laptop,\u201d Douglas said. \u201cEven at home, she uses the laptop to do research.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Sereta Smith, another mom from P.S. 235, disagreed. \u201cI\u2019m old school,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI believe that peer-to-peer interaction is better than screens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ThreeFrom left, Zay, Priscilla and Yasmina pose for a portrait on their first day of sixth grade on Thurs., Sept. 10., 2026 at P.S.\/I.S. 206 in Brooklyn. (Alex Zimmerman \/ Chalkbeat) <\/p>\n

Sixth graders at P.S.\/I.S. 206 in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, said their previous schools often used i-Ready for regular assessments and schoolwork<\/a> and used other apps for reading. One student, Yasmina, said she likes how digital platforms give her more reading options. But she admitted her eyes \u201cdid kind of hurt.\u201d She added, \u201cI guess it helps to use devices less, so I can focus more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her classmate Zay prefers print. \u201cThe actual copy\u2019s better,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can actually feel the book and see it in your eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents of high schoolers are perhaps having other conversations around AI use and screens, with more focus on responsible use.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m less worried about the developmental and the biology aspects,\u201d said Abe Asoli about his older daughter, a freshman at Brooklyn Tech. Instead, he is asking: \u201cAre we doing this right? Are we optimizing to the best of our abilities to find that balance between relying on AI but also pursuing a healthy education?\u201d<\/p>\n

He also wants his daughter to be informed about technology\u2019s potential impact on learning. The night before the first day of school, he sent his daughter an article about how reading proficiency is declining in countries around the world.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cPart of our approach is simply talking about it and creating awareness,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this is just a part of the beginning of a discussion,\u201d Asoli added. \u201cYes, schools will set limits, parents will set limits, and policymakers will begin to build task forces and committees, and so that\u2019s hopefully the silver lining.\u201d <\/p>\n

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.<\/p>\n

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4146,4683,13533,9,24,56,63,65,64,5973,2585],"class_list":["post-343143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-chalkbeat","tag-family","tag-first-day-of-school","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-p-s-235","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343143","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=343143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}