The short version:
At The Gateway School's fall panel on AI and neurodiverse kids, experts from NPR, Teachers College, and the Child Mind Institute told parents:
AI can help kids who learn differently. Speech-to-text, task breakdown for ADHD, and reading support for autistic students all showed promise.
It can also hurt them. Chatbots are built to keep kids talking, and kids who need extra support are often the most vulnerable.
NYC's K–8 school ban doesn't reach home. Most kids' AI use happens after school.
Start with the goal. Ask what your child is trying to learn before you say yes or no to a tool.
If a tool helps, put it in the IEP or 504. Ask the team to name the tool and the goal.
Anya Kamenetz asked the room for a show of hands. “How freaked out are you about AI? A little? More? All the way?”
Most of us in the room were parents. She read the hands from the stage: "medium to high is what I'm seeing."
Then she told a story about a friend's child, a child with more than one diagnosis.
"That kid had a first girlfriend on AI and had a breakup on AI and was despondent from this breakup, and my friend, the mom, had no idea any of this was going on."
The child explained that the app had reset, and the AI girlfriend was gone.
The mom found out about the “breakup” only when her child seemed depressed. The child explained that the app had reset, and the AI girlfriend was gone.
This was at the fall Gateway Gathering at The Gateway School in the Upper West Side. The Gateway School has taught kids with dyslexia, ADHD, and other language-based learning differences for more than 60 years.
The quarterly series is in its second installment. This one asked a single question: Is AI the great equalizer for neurodiverse kids?
The panel included:
Anya Kamenetz, former NPR education correspondent and author of The Art of Screen Time and The Stolen Year
Amanda Levin Mazin, Ph.D., associate professor of teaching and student teaching coordinator at Teachers College, Columbia University
Vera Feuer, M.D., chief clinical officer at the Child Mind Institute and a board-certified child and adult psychiatrist
Dr. Sherri Helvie, head of school at The Gateway School, moderated
The timing of the panel coincided with the recent ban on artificial intelligence in all K-8 NYC public school classrooms, with an exception for assistive tech in a child's IEP or 504 plan. I sussed out a couple dozen takeaways — many things I had not considered.
At the beginning of the Gathering, Kamenetz warned that an AI ban in schools could give adults false comfort.
It's really important to understand that AI is not your friend, and that the ultimate thing AI is programmed to do is to keep you talking to it.
"I'm worried that the ban causes a false sense of security among both parents and teachers that they're not really seeing the use of AI that's going on after hours, which is quite widespread."
For parents of kids in special education, the panel's answer was not yes or no. AI for special education can open doors. It can also do real harm. Which one you get depends on the tool, the goal, and the child.
Here is what parents need to know, and what to do about it.
What Parents Need to Know About AI and Special Education
The panel's message was not that AI is always helpful or always harmful. Start with the child, the learning goal, and the specific tool.
"AI is just one more tool that a teacher could choose, or a parent could choose, or possibly a student could choose to supplement to get them to what the goal is without interfering," Mazin said.
Some AI tools can support access and learning. Speech-to-text, transcription, task breakdowns, and visual schedules may help children take part or organize their work.
The support should fit the goal. A tool that helps with comprehension could get in the way if the child's goal is decoding or reading on their own. Mazin said parents and educators should consider "the context for learning, the students' need for learning, and then the goal of the activity."
AI can be wrong, and chatbots are not people. "It's really important to understand that AI is not your friend, and that the ultimate thing AI is programmed to do is to keep you talking to it," Kamenetz said. Feuer's rule for research: "never use it for citations because it completely makes up things."
Our kids carry more risk. "Unfortunately, the same kids that may need some of that assistive support are the kids that are also very vulnerable," Feuer said.
A school ban doesn't reach home. Mazin's teenage daughter gets around her school's phone ban with her own laptop. At home, Mazin said, there are "no guardrails currently."
Protect privacy. Mazin described student information as a boundary for the teachers she trains: "Where they seem to have a hard stop is anything with student data."
Watch what AI use may push out. Feuer warned that technology can crowd out relationships and other key experiences. She called "connection and human connection" a major protective factor for children.
42% of kids, according to Common Sense Media, are using AI for companionship or what they say is mental health support.
How AI Can Help Kids With ADHD, Dyslexia, and Autism
The panel did not call AI the enemy. Used for the right job, it can level the field.
Speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and live transcription. Kamenetz called these the clear wins. Her mother has hearing loss and uses live captions. "It's a lifeline for her to stay engaged."
Breaking down tasks for kids with ADHD. AI can turn a big job into steps, build a visual schedule, or run a daily check-in. "These are all things that, with a coach and with help, AI can really help with," Kamenetz said.
Reading between the lines. Mazin studied autistic students who could answer direct reading questions but struggled with inference. The hard part was knowing how the characters felt. Her team used an AI tool to label and color-code each character's emotions. "The students did significantly better on answering the inferencing questions with an AI tool," she said.
Decoding the IEP itself. Kamenetz described AIEP, a tool from GovLab and Northeastern University that rewrites IEPs in plain language, and in other languages. "Instead of minutes per year, it's how many sessions per week am I supposed to get?" She also spoke with a dyslexic mother of a dyslexic child. For her, ChatGPT could "decode these emails and this bureaucratic language" and help her "respond more politely than I might otherwise when I'm getting frustrated."
Mazin offered the caution that runs through all of it. "There is a very murky area between what is a support and what is a supplement."
The biggest problem I think that students have with AI is putting the wrong question in
How to Talk to Kids About AI
Ask, don't lecture. Feuer said adults could ask kids these questions about AI:
“What were you hoping AI would help you do?”
“How do we know that answer is accurate?”
“Is it helping you learn, or doing the part you’re meant to practice?”
“How does using it make you feel?”
“Would you show me how you use it?”
Let them teach you. Kids often know the tools better than we do. Feuer suggests asking them to show you: "Have them teach you how do you use this? I never used this before. What do you do?"
Lead with curiosity. Kamenetz uses the same questions she uses to talk with kids about climate change: "What questions do you have? What have you heard? What can we find out together?"
Show them what a chatbot is. Kamenetz's nine-year-old heard a This American Life segment where two chatbots talked to each other in an endless loop, each one trying to help the other. It clicked. "It's like a smiley face, and behind the smiley face is a scary robot."
With teens, rules alone won't work. Feuer compared the teen brain to the ADHD brain: big feelings, fast impulses, "Ferrari without breaks." Teens won't take limits from people they see as outsiders. "They think we're completely out of touch. We don't understand their world. We don't understand AI."
Say "I don't know." Some kids are anxious about what AI means for their future. Feuer's advice: "don't be afraid to say I don't know."
AI supports should be evaluated, recommended by professionals in an IEP or a 504 the same way any other supports for students are provided.
AI and Your Child's IEP: What Parents Can Do Now
Set a learning goal first. Decide what your child is meant to practice. Then ask whether AI supports that goal or skips it. Mazin: "The goal of the activity is decoding. You're not going to have the story read to the student. If the goal is reading comprehension, maybe you would."
Explore tools together. Sit side by side. Look at what the tool produces, and check key facts against sources you trust. Feuer's advice: "let's use it together, and then let's look at the answer together."
Teach the right question. "The biggest problem I think that students have with AI is putting the wrong question in," Mazin said. A child who pastes in a math problem and hopes for the best is not learning.
Keep private details private. Don't enter your child's name, IEP details, evaluations, or other sensitive information into AI tools.
Praise effort, not just polished results. Kamenetz wants kids to build "the patience to go back and check your work and understand where you went wrong." At home, she said, "let them see me struggle."
Match the rules to your child. Think about age, learning needs, judgment, and comfort with technology. One rule won't fit every child. "Know your kid," Mazin said.
If a tool helps, raise it with the school team. Ask whether it fits your child's needs and goals, and how it can be used at school. Feuer said AI supports should be "evaluated, recommended by professionals in an IEP or a 504, and provided in that manner, the same way any other supports for students are provided." Ask the team to name the specific tool and the goal it supports. Lighthouse is reporting on how the city's IEP exception will work.
Do This: Use AI as a supplement when it helps your child reach, organize, or practice their learning. Keep their learning, privacy, judgment, and real relationships at the center.
Connection Beats Any Ban
By the end of the morning, no one on stage had called AI good or bad. Everybody agreed that the tools will keep changing.
"The biggest, biggest safety protective factor for kids in general is connection," Feuer said.
The chatbot can't be that. But parents can.
FAQ: Artificial Intelligence in Special Education
What is AI in special education?
It means using artificial intelligence tools to support students with disabilities. Panelists pointed to speech-to-text, text-to-speech, live captions, task breakdown for ADHD, and reading support for autistic students. "I think technology itself is the equalizer," said Teachers College professor Amanda Levin Mazin. "It really is for everything from ambulatory services to cognitive supports."
Can AI help kids with ADHD?
It can, with an adult guiding it. Former NPR education correspondent Anya Kamenetz pointed to AI that breaks big tasks into steps, builds visual schedules, and runs "daily check-ins, something that can be slightly automated." She stressed it works best with a coach, not alone.
Is AI bad for kids?
It depends on the use. "The chatbot thing frightens me, truly, as a teacher and a parent, frightens me," Mazin said. "But the ways AI can be used as an equalizer and as a tool, I think, are really great."
Is AI banned in NYC public schools?
NYC announced a ban on AI in K–8 classrooms, with an exception for assistive technology in a child's IEP or 504 plan. The ban covers school, not home. As Kamenetz put it: "just because you banned it for teachers to use it, it doesn't mean you've stopped students from using it."
Can AI tools go in my child's IEP or 504 plan?
Yes. The ban makes an exception for assistive technology in an IEP or 504 plan. But how the city will write that in is still unclear. "Curious if the IEP will actually state AI, or if it'll have a specific company or a specific tool," Mazin said. Ask the IEP team to name the specific tool and the goal it supports.
Is AI safe for kids with learning differences?
It depends on the use. Panelists warned that companion chatbots carry extra risk for vulnerable kids, and that screen time can push out the human contact kids need. Child Mind Institute's Vera Feuer said: "when AI and technology crowds all of that out and replaces it with something else, I worry."