Mary Vaccaro of UFT testifies on AI safeguards and Microsoft agreement

Now I'll call up our first panel.

We have a student, Alma Adi.

Ariana Ahmed Misha, and Sika Agbokov, and Mary Vaccaro.

Okay, so we'll come back to you all if they're here.

Let us know when they're here.

So we'll go to Mary Vaccaro, Jennifer Weber, Doug Spring, and Julie Samuels.

In the meantime, could we ask Mama to redo her witness?

And we also ask Alma Adi to please redo her witness slip and speak to the sergeant at arms about that.

Okay.

May I begin?

You're ready.

Mary, you want to go first?

Okay.

My name is Mary Vaccaro and I'm the Vice President of Education for the United Federation of Teachers.

On behalf of the union's 200,000 members, I want to thank Chairperson Krishnan and on the Committee of Oversight and Investigations for holding today's hearing on screen time and the use of digital devices in New York City public schools.

I also want to thank Chairperson Dinowitz and the Committee on Education for their attention to this pressing issue that students, parents, and school staff grapple with daily.

As educators, we strive to provide students with the best education and learning experience possible.

Screens, digital devices, and artificial intelligence enhance our ability to do this, but only when they are appropriately used as tools to support learning, not as replacement for interpersonal relationships and hands-on experiences.

Despite the prevalence of AI in our schools, there has been little regulation and guidance from federal, state, and until very recently from the New York City.

Earlier this month, New York City Public Schools released guidance on AI and screen time.

There are many aspects of the plan that we support.

Banning individual screen use in 2K through second grade makes sense, as does limiting

individual screen time for grades three through eight, and reviewing what's appropriate for nine through 12 based on individual courses.

The New York City Public Schools screen policy also gives schools flexibility for special education students and students with English language learning.

These educational programs require a device or for when the system or the school needs to go remote.

New York City Public Schools AI policy leaves many questions unanswered, particularly how the department will be more aggressive in demanding that the products it purchases have AI safeguards built in.

To fill in these gaps, the UFT has played a pivotal role in creating and running the AFT's National Academy for AI Instruction based here in New York City.

The Academy is training hub designed and overseen by educators grounded in trust, safety, and people-first technology built directly on the AFT's common sense guardrails.

In less than a year, we have provided 2,000 educators in-person training and 11,000 educators year-round.

And I kind of, we have a ton, but you have it.

We really want to focus on our agreement with Microsoft that New York City public schools can easily agree to

in order to do more safeguards and really talk about what those safeguards are there for privacy, transparency, and security in our schools.

So you can see the rest of our testimony there.

Thanks so much, Mary, and thanks to all that you have.

FT does as well.

We look forward to continuing to work on this.

Julie Samuels.