NEW YORK — The American Federation of Teachers and its New York City affiliate have signed a legally binding agreement with artificial intelligence company Anthropic that the unions say makes safety, privacy and transparency standards enforceable in thousands of K-12 schools across the country.
The AFT, which represents 1.875 million members, and the United Federation of Teachers announced the pact Nov. 10. Under it, a national “AI Safety and Privacy Standard for Schools” automatically applies to Anthropic’s existing agreements with school districts that use Claude for Teachers, the company’s AI product for educators, according to the AFT.
The unions said the agreement sets three enforceable principles. Student data may be used only for authorized educational purposes and may never be sold or used for targeted advertising, with schools controlling how long data is kept and when it is deleted. AI products must include safeguards designed for schools, and educators remain responsible for instructional and other consequential decisions about students. And the company must give schools, educators and families plain-language information on how its products work, what data they collect, where they fall short and what safeguards apply.
AFT President Randi Weingarten said guardrails on AI matter as much as the training the union provides to teachers. She said the union wants the standard written into law, noting the agreement was reached “in the almost total absence of federal and state AI regulation.”
Michael Mulgrew, president of the 200,000-member UFT, said teachers unions are working to hold AI companies accountable because the federal government has not stepped in, and that the union was heartened that Anthropic values student privacy.
Elizabeth Kelly, head of beneficial deployments at Anthropic, said the company’s work with teachers depends on trust. “That is only possible if teachers, students and school systems trust us,” she said. Kelly said the company would honor the agreements and build on them in its education work worldwide.
The agreement builds on the unions’ existing partnership with Anthropic through the National Academy for AI Instruction, a New York City-based training center where educators lead other educators on using AI in classrooms. Anthropic is a founding partner of the academy alongside the AFT, the UFT, Microsoft and OpenAI, the union said.
Anthropic launched Claude for Teachers in July, offering free access to verified U.S. K-12 educators, according to the AFT. In May, the AFT called for a ban on student-facing AI in elementary schools, a ban on screens in kindergarten through second grade and a total ban on “social companion” chatbots for children under 16.
This report is based on information from the American Federation of Teachers.
Source: American Federation of Teachers
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