NEW YORK, September 9 — The American Federation of Teachers, the United Federation of Teachers and Microsoft announced a first-of-its-kind agreement Wednesday establishing a National AI Safety & Privacy Standard for schools, with legally enforceable protections for students, families and educators. The announcement was made in New York City by AFT President Randi Weingarten, UFT President Michael Mulgrew and Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith.
It arrives after months of negotiations and, as the parties describe it, in the absence of meaningful federal and state rules governing artificial intelligence in schools.
What the standard actually does
Under the agreement, tech companies cannot use student data to train AI. Students can never be tracked. AI cannot make decisions without human oversight.
And companies must give educators and parents transparency and plain-language answers about how their tools work. The framework is centered on three priorities: protecting the privacy and data of children, giving schools real control over AI tools in the classroom, and providing transparency and information to parents.
U.S. school districts can incorporate the protections directly into their Microsoft customer agreements, which makes them contractually enforceable. Weingarten said the agreement was hard-fought and iron-clad, with real teeth. She argued that no one else, including the federal government, had stepped up to do the work, and said anything less than legally enforceable provisions is a wish list.
Smith said the standard sets a high bar for child privacy and AI safety. Mulgrew, who leads the New York City AFT affiliate, said the agreement gives families and school districts the information and privacy protections they have demanded.
He said it empowers districts to end agreements and seek damages from bad actors who break the rules, and that it starts to level the playing field in a competitive, ever-changing arena that lacks needed guardrails.
A framework already spreading
A similar framework has been adopted by the Los Angeles Unified School District and by New York State United Teachers, the AFT’s state affiliate. New York City Public Schools and Mayor Zohran Mamdani adopted one the prior week. The New York City screens and AI ban was adopted together with Mamdani, and the new national standard builds on it.
In a May 2026 speech titled “Devices Down, Eyes Up, Hands-On,” Weingarten flagged her fight for an enforceable data privacy standard and called for a total screen ban from kindergarten through second grade, a ban on student-facing AI in elementary school, and a ban on social companion chatbots for students under 16. The AFT’s work on the issue goes back further.
In 2024, the union released “Commonsense Guardrails for Using Advanced Technology in Schools,” establishing nine core principles to ensure students and families were informed and protected. Last year, the AFT announced the creation of the National Academy for AI Instruction, which enables educators to access training on the use and misuse of AI tools rather than being treated as an afterthought, as often happens with changes in education technology. Led by educators, the academy allows teachers to become proficient with the emerging technology and to be diligent about student safety.
What to watch next is whether other districts follow New York City, Los Angeles and New York State in adopting the framework, and whether the contractual teeth Weingarten described hold up when a vendor breaks the rules.
