09/04/2026
For students through 8th grade, the city is pausing generative AI for a year. For high schoolers, it's moving the other way — adding AI literacy classes for every student and piloting supervised, educator-guided use of a handful of platforms. And across every grade, including high school, companion chatbots are off the table entirely.
We asked our Chief Medical Officer, Nikhil Nadkarni, MD, for his take:
"This is what a thoughtful approach looks like, precisely because it isn't a blanket ban. When a technology is this new, pausing it for the youngest kids — while we study how it affects developing minds and build a longer-term plan — is a reasonable call. And for older teens, who will encounter these tools regardless, a gradual, supervised introduction is a safer path than either a ban they'll work around or unsupervised access with no adult in sight."
He's also candid about what a ban alone can't do.
"Kids are resourceful, and many will still find their way to these tools — which means a ban can hand adults a false sense of security that children aren't engaging with AI at all. That's the deeper work a pause is meant to buy time for: not keeping AI away from kids forever, but helping them build the judgment to know what a tool can do for them, and where it can't stand in for real human connection."
"It's telling what the policy keeps off-limits even for teens. Barring companion chatbots across every grade draws exactly the kind of line worth drawing — the difference between a tool that supports a kid and one that quietly replaces the relationships they actually need."
"That's the lens we bring at Brightline: pairing clinical expertise with a clear-eyed read on the world our kids are growing up in."
How is your school thinking about AI this year? We'd like to hear it. 👇
