NYC Schools Develop Their Own AI Policies as City Delays Guidance
New York City schools have spent more than two years managing artificial intelligence on their own, with teachers restructuring assignments and administrators drafting policies while waiting for the Education Department to provide formal direction. The department is expected to release a citywide draft AI policy on Tuesday-more than two years after ChatGPT upended what students and teachers could do with a single prompt.
The delay has left schools to chart their own course. Some have written comprehensive policies. Others have banned the technology outright. Many have done nothing formal at all.
Schools Take Different Approaches
East Side Community School in Manhattan developed a 12-page draft policy after Assistant Principal Joe Vincente recognized the problem had become unsustainable. Staff members were holding multiple meetings each week with students suspected of using AI inappropriately. The school's core rule: "As a community dedicated to deep learning, we prohibit the unsupervised use of generative AI for all schoolwork and assessments."
Vincente spent months convening a committee of staff, gathering input from students and parents, and working through the details. The school based its approach on a belief that nurturing critical thinking skills matters more than exposing students to the technology right now.
"If we send them out in the world with all of these other really strong skills that we believe in, critical reading and strong writing, they'll be able to learn AI if they need to," Vincente said.
Other schools have taken different paths. Williamsburg Charter High School in Brooklyn banned ChatGPT on school devices. Sunset Park High School and John Bowne High School in Queens launched faculty committees after teachers attended professional development sessions. Beacon School in Manhattan moved admissions essays to in-person to avoid concerns about AI use.
Teachers Restructure Assignments Without Clear Rules
Many educators have redesigned their teaching to prevent AI shortcuts. English and social studies teachers have moved away from take-home essays, having students write in class instead. Jessica Radin, a social studies teacher at Beacon School, said she was surprised by how well she got to know her students' writing this year.
A Brooklyn high school English teacher who requested anonymity said she lacks administrative backup. "I would love clear rules," she said, "and I feel that I do not have backup. The administrators do not recognize the extent of the problem."
Adam Stevens, a social studies teacher at Brooklyn Technical High School-the city's largest with almost 6,000 students-doesn't have the bandwidth to check every assignment for AI use. Instead, he makes the case that students will disadvantage themselves in college by relying on AI, and he poses questions with personal components that students won't want to feed into a chatbot.
The Gray Area Grows
Schools developing policies are wrestling with questions that don't have obvious answers. Can students use AI to find sources for a history paper? What about using it to brainstorm? When should consequences apply if students don't realize they're using AI?
Brooklyn Collaborative School uses a "traffic light" system on each assignment. Teachers mark AI uses as clearly permissible (green), requiring caution (yellow), or impermissible (red).
Educators are also experimenting with AI themselves-using it to create lesson plans, build resources, and provide feedback to students. Vincente said the lines can blur, which is why schools need to understand their own values and trust teachers to carry them out.
Competing Visions for Student Preparation
Educators and parents are split on what schools should do. Some call for a full moratorium, citing academic, environmental, and mental health risks. Others argue that not exposing students to AI would do them a disservice, given how embedded the technology is in the economy and society.
Those conflicts have surfaced publicly in recent months, particularly in debates over AI company contracts and a new AI-focused high school in Manhattan. After the city releases its policy, the public will have 45 days to offer feedback.
Jeremiah Dickerson, an 18-year-old senior at Williamsburg Charter, acknowledged that some students misuse AI. But he questioned whether banning it makes sense. "If AI is banned in my school," he said, "and then I go to college and an AI is everywhere, how does that really effectively prepare me to use it?"
Vincente said educators need to sit in the middle of these competing opinions. "There are a lot of extreme opinions, and I think somewhere in the middle is our responsibility as educators to wrestle with the tension of all of those things and then decide what's best for our students and our communities," he said.
Schools looking to develop AI policies may find resources helpful. The AI for Education collection covers how schools are implementing the technology, while the AI Learning Path for Teachers offers guidance on appropriate classroom use.
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