1. Please sign up for our Zoom briefing this Sunday at 5 PM if you haven’t already, where we will summarize the changes in the class size law, point out the serious flaws in the DOE’s proposed class size plan for next year, and provide strategies that parents and teachers can use to better ensure that your kids as well as all NYC students get smaller classes as soon as possible – whether next year or in the years to come. We will also try to answer any questions you may have to the best of our ability.
2. Yesterday, a joint hearing of the NYC Council Education and Technology committees was held. At the hearing, the Chancellor did not testify but many other DoE officials did, including First Deputy Chancellor Danielle Giunta. Unfortunately, neither she nor anyone else offered any timeline when the revised AI guidelines would be released, no date when the feedback survey results for those guidelines will be provided, no proposals as to how their privacy vetting would be improved despite the recent findings of the scathing Comptroller audit, and no assurances that AI tools used in schools will be analyzed for racial bias.
More on the highlights and lowlights of the hearing are described here, as well as my testimony outlining the shoddy, irresponsible privacy and AI policies of the DOE. Included in my testimony are a few comments from the thousands of signers of our AI moratorium petition, and an Appendix listing just some of the AI tools currently used in schools which the DOE has refused to provide. I also provide links to videos of the hearing, and suggestions on how the two AI reporting bills recently introduced by the Council could be strengthened.
If you have serious concerns related to student privacy and/or the use of AI in the classroom, you can upload your thoughts in written form to this Council webpage up to 72 hours following the close of the hearing – which is Saturday, June 27, 2026 at about 6 PM. I suggest you also copy your thoughts to your Councilmember and your State Legislators, to ensure they are alerted to your concerns. If you would like to share your testimony publicly, please email it to us at info@studentprivacymatters.org.
In any case, please remember to sign up for Sunday’s class size briefing here. Thanks!
-Leonie
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