That is what responsible AI work in New York schools looks like in 2026. It is happening monthly, peer to peer, throughout the state.
Across New York, districts are working through the same set of questions. Teachers are deciding what to do when a student submits AI-generated work. Principals are writing acceptable-use language. Superintendents are evaluating AI vendor contracts under Education Law 2-d. Boards are fielding questions from parents. Without a statewide model to point to, every district is figuring this out independently. The risk is that hundreds of separate local decisions harden into hundreds of different local practices long before the state issues guidance, a result that benefits no one, especially students.
NYSAIC was founded in 2023 to answer exactly that risk. Today, it brings together more than 230 superintendents, cabinet leaders and educators from more than 160 New York schools, districts and organizations across the state, including Lake Placid, Tupper Lake, Saranac Lake and Boquet Valley from across the North Country. The consortium is free, vendor-neutral, and practitioner-led. Its members develop shared policy together, evaluate AI tools side by side, share frameworks and learn from each other's real implementation experience.
This is the moment for NYSED to translate the framework it presented to the Board of Regents in March 2024 into comprehensive statewide guidance. In the coming days, NYSAIC will submit a formal position paper to Chancellor Lester W. Young Jr. and Commissioner Betty A. Rosa with four practical recommendations.
First, convene a standing practitioner advisory body. NYSAIC is prepared to help anchor it at no cost to the department.
Second, publish a library of model district policies covering student acceptable use, staff guidance, academic integrity, parent notification and AI vendor due diligence.
Third, crosswalk AI literacy outcomes to the Computer Science and Digital Fluency Standards the board adopted in 2020 rather than standing up a competing strand.
Fourth, coordinate statewide professional learning on AI across BOCES, university partners and approved CTLE sponsors so every channel works from a common reference.
More than 30 states have already issued formal AI guidance for their P-12 systems, including Virginia, Ohio, California, Oregon and Washington. The states that did it well shared two features: visible partnership with practicing educators and alignment with standards their states had already adopted. New York can do both better than any state that has moved so far, but only if NYSED acts in 2026.
Chancellor Young, Commissioner Rosa and the regents have practitioners across the state ready to do the work, including across the North Country. NYSAIC's existing membership reaches every region of New York, but more North Country cabinet leaders are welcome.
The work is already underway. The state should make it official.
© 2026 the Press-Republican (Plattsburgh, N.Y.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
