After Zohran Mamdani bans AI in New York City schools, Microsoft agrees not to train AI on student data; teachers union says: Anything less than…

A week after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani banned AI for public school students up to eighth grade, Microsoft has signed a legally binding AI privacy agreement with two of the largest teachers unions in the US. Under the deal, the company cannot use student or teacher data to train its AI models, cannot track students, and cannot let AI make high-risk decisions without a human reviewing them.Called the National AI Safety & Privacy Standard, the agreement was announced in New York on September 9 by Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten and United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President Michael Mulgrew. School districts can write the terms straight into their Microsoft contracts. If the company breaks them, districts can end the contract and seek damages.

Microsoft’s AI privacy standard bars student data training, tracking and companion chatbots

The standard lists 10 enforceable protections. Microsoft cannot sell student data or use it for ads, must limit how much data it collects, and has to explain in plain language how its tools work. It must report data breaches within 72 hours, fix security flaws within a set deadline and clear annual certification and audits. AI companion chatbots for students are ruled out altogether.“It is 30 pages, but in some ways it comes down to three words: privacy, safety, and transparency,” Smith said. He added that the terms will cover every district Microsoft works with from November 1. Districts can also add them to new or existing contracts without renegotiating the full deal.Weingarten called it an “iron-clad privacy agreement with real teeth,” needed “because no one else, including the federal government, has stepped up to do the real work.”

LAUSD has gone further than Zohran Mamdani’s AI ban in NYC schools

Mamdani announced the one-year moratorium on September 2 with Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels. It covers nearly 600,000 students up to eighth grade, while companion chatbots and mainstream tools such as ChatGPT and Claude are blocked in every grade. High schoolers get five AI pilots and two mandatory 45-minute AI literacy modules. Teachers can use AI to plan lessons but not to grade.“The tech industry wants us to believe that AI in early education is not only inevitable, but that it is necessary. We do not see it that way,” Mamdani said.Los Angeles Unified has gone a step further. On the same day, district officials revealed a moratorium barring students in all grades from using generative AI on district devices this school year. The disclosure surprised board members at the first meeting of a committee on AI in schools, since senior administrators had imposed it on their own after the board’s June vote to restrict screen time. Google’s AI Mode has also been switched off on student accounts.Board member Nick Melvoin did not object, but noted that the decision “didn’t really come from the board.”

Teachers unions want OpenAI and Anthropic to sign similar AI privacy deals

Weingarten said OpenAI and Anthropic, which fund the unions’ $23 million National Academy for AI Instruction along with Microsoft, “have expressed willingness to do this kind of agreement.” An Anthropic spokesperson said the company has been working with the AFT on “shaping a gold standard for safety and privacy.” OpenAI is yet to comment.The unions chose contracts because US law has not caught up. COPPA requires parental consent before companies collect data from children under 13, but it predates generative AI by over two decades and does not address model training. At least 37 states have issued AI guidance for schools, but there is still no national consensus on how schools should teach AI literacy.“HIPAA and FERPA never envisioned the advent of AI,” Weingarten said, “and in the absence of those protections, tech companies need to take responsibility for the products they create and market to students, educators and communities.”