Bill would ban humanoid robots from instruction
State Sen. Shelley Mayer, chair of the Senate Education Committee, has introduced legislation that would prohibit the use of AI-enabled humanoid robots in teaching roles in New York schools. The bill, S.10671, would bar humanoid robots from delivering or leading classroom instruction, providing one-on-one or small-group instruction, tutoring, offering educational support services, assessing or evaluating student performance, grading student work, or performing any other duties ordinarily carried out by a certified teacher. It would also require every school district, charter school, and BOCES to adopt a written policy governing any other use of humanoid robots in schools.
Mayer said humanoid AI robots designed to look and interact like people raise unique concerns in schools, including the potential for fostering inappropriate emotional attachments and the inability to replace the human interaction critical to intellectual, social, and age-appropriate development.
Salamanca pilot prompts legislation
The legislation follows the Salamanca City Central School District's decision to pause its pilot program using a humanoid robot named Sally. The robot, purchased from Realbotix, was designed to appear between 16 and 24 years old with a positive personality and knowledge of local history. The district planned to use it as a tutoring aide for a small group of high school students in its Woz Ed STEAM curriculum.
On July 24, state Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa sent a letter to Salamanca Superintendent Mark Beehler expressing concerns about the robot's effect on students. Rosa wrote that the district's characterization of the robot as a tutoring platform in a recent board presentation contradicted earlier assurances that it would not deliver classroom instruction. She said the department would monitor the situation for potential legal, operational, instructional, privacy, safety, and other consequences. Within hours of receiving the letter, the district announced on Facebook that the pilot was on hold while officials worked on enhanced student data privacy agreements with the state education department and continued community engagement.
No existing state guardrails
Before the Salamanca pilot, no New York state law or regulation governed the use of humanoid robots or AI in classrooms. New York State United Teachers President Melinda Person noted that the Salamanca robot was stopped not by a law or regulation but by the absence of such policies. A state education department spokesman said the agency had been developing statewide guidance for schools on AI use for months, but that any changes to state law governing technology in classrooms would require legislative action. S.10671 would be the state's first legislative attempt to establish guardrails on humanoid robots in schools.
Research base questioned
Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, chair of the Senate Internet and Technology Committee, expressed support for the bill, stating that no research supports the use of AI-powered humanoid robots in classrooms and that evidence-based guidelines should be established before new technology is introduced in educational settings. According to CBS6 Albany, Gonzalez presented the assertion about the absence of supporting research as a legislative finding without citing specific studies.