Michael Mulgrew on the schools AI privacy standard
Michael MulgrewPresident of the United Federation of Teachers
Mulgrew presented the negotiated standard as giving families and districts enforceable privacy protections and the power to end agreements with vendors that break the rules.
“Educators are stepping in to do what we do best: protect our students. This agreement gives families and school districts the information and privacy protections they have been demanding, and it empowers school districts to end agreements and seek damages from bad actors who break the rules.”
Official statement
Where this statement fits
Should schools pause student-facing AI despite Microsoft’s new privacy safeguards?
Microsoft and the National Academy for AI Instruction signed school-AI privacy and safety standards announced with the AFT and UFT on September 9. Fairplay’s Josh Golin welcomes the privacy improvements but calls for a five-year pause on generative AI in schools. New York City’s September 2 policy illustrates a different approach: pause most direct use through eighth grade while allowing restricted high-school pilots. Kristen Gonzalez and Carmen De La Rosa support the younger-grade ban but urge postponement of the pilots until the tools can be properly assessed.
Source and context
Official statement
About this source
Joint announcement of contractual privacy and safety protections. Weingarten also welcomes New York City’s younger-grade restrictions; the announcement does not establish uniform student deployment or educational effectiveness.
Before the quotation
New York City and Los Angeles had paused student use of AI for a year while they studied how to incorporate it, and the AFT and UFT had been negotiating with Microsoft for months.
After the quotation
The announcement said the standard is legally binding, requires third-party audits, and bars vendors from training AI on student data or building features designed to foster emotional dependency.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Relative to continued student-facing AI in schools, Mulgrew endorses the safeguards and the enforcement powers they give districts while his union simultaneously backs New York City’s restrictions, which the same announcement says the standard builds on. He neither urges a pause nor argues that the safeguards make one unnecessary, matching how Randi Weingarten’s statement from the same announcement is already labelled.
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The Dispute Index. "Michael Mulgrew on the schools AI privacy standard". First published: 2026-09-17. Last updated: 2026-09-17. https://disputeindex.com/events/936-mulgrew-presented-the-negotiated-standard-as-giving-families