On September 2, as students returned to class, New York City implemented a one-year pause on generative AI use for nearly 600,000 students across pre-K, elementary, and middle school. Los Angeles soon followed, blocking it for every student on a district-issued device. Together, the country’s two largest school systems came to the same conclusion: Better to wait a year than to keep putting untested tools in front of kids.

Neither district is calling the decision permanent. Both are responding to parents who worry that untested AI tools are reaching students before anyone knows whether they improve learning. New York City Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said it best: “We’re standing firmly in our belief that innovation does not mean more technology, and over the next year, we will lead with evidence to make sure technology serves learning—not the other way around.” 

Teachers, school leaders, parents, and students are making consequential decisions about AI without reliable information about what works, for whom, and under what conditions.

Sixty percent of teachers use AI for work, yet 82% report they’ve received no formal guidance on how to use it. Just half of middle and high schools have any AI policy, and only 6% of teachers in those schools say those policies are clear. This lack of clarity shows up in how people feel about AI, too. Thirty-one percent of Gen Z now say AI makes them angry, up from 22% a year earlier, and 80% believe relying on it will make learning harder.

Still, banning AI in school won’t take it out of students’ lives completely.

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