NYC Officials Hesitate on Teenspace Contract Renewal

Health Department representatives decline to state whether they intend to extend a controversial initiative that emerged as a prominent post-pandemic strategy by New York City to address adolescent mental health challenges.limbo, and Health Department officials

In November 2023, the platform debuted under the administration of former Mayor Eric Adams to offer local youth access to complimentary therapists via phone, text, or video interaction. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene secured a three-year agreement valued at $26 million with the service provider.

Talkspace, the New York enterprise managing Teenspace, held an agreement slated to conclude in September, though municipal procurement records indicate it was subsequently extended by two years. Roughly 52,000 teens had signed up for Teenspace as of last week, Health Department officials told Chalkbeat. About 80% were students of color, they added. For some New York City teens, the platform was their first encounter with a therapist.

Yet the program has spent much of its lifecycle under scrutiny from parent advocates and city lawmakers over data privacy. Detractors claimed that Teenspace gathers user information and transmits it to outside entities for promotional purposes without user awareness.

Talkspace Agrees to Remove Trackers from Teenspace Website

Public records show advocates compelled Health Department officials to respond. In late 2024, after receiving formal letters of concern from critics including education technology watchdog Leonie Haimson, Health Department officials and Talkspace executives engaged in months of negotiations.

Records from December 2024 indicate that Talkspace agreed to remove the trackers from the Teenspace website “as well as trackers not necessary for website operations or security.” In an email to city health officials that same month, a Talkspace lawyer asserted that the company had taken measures “above and beyond what is normally required by even the more stringent public privacy standards.”

The firm retained an outside privacy law firm and “an outside pixel expert firm to independently and objectively scrutinize our privacy practices, policies and pixel usage, which was a material expense undertaken to help New York City DOH/DOE gain clarity on all of our practices.”

“They really should have been doing their due diligence,” said Shannon Edwards, a digital marketing consultant and founder of an online platform called AI for Families. “The work should have been done. It should have been understood.”

Haimson expressed ongoing frustration with the administration’s initial oversight. “I just don’t think New York City is doing the job that it should be doing to really safeguard the privacy of children and teens in New York City,” Haimson told Chalkbeat.

Scrutiny spilled over into legislative chambers. During an April City Council oversight session, Brooklyn representative Rita Joseph inquired whether any gathered Teenspace information was being “shared or sold” to external parties.

“The data is protected,” Marnie Davidoff, an assistant commissioner with the Health Department, said. “The data that is used is only for service provision. There is no other allowable use of the data.”

Health Department officials did not provide more details on how the data is protected.

An Independent Evaluation Amid Leadership Turnover

Neither the New York City Department nor Talkspace would answer questions about the contract.

Rachel Vick, a Health Department spokesperson, said that the agency “is in the process of an independent evaluation to review the demonstration project and its outcomes. NYC Teenspace will continue to serve clients while that process continues.” Talkspace spokesperson Alana Morales referred questions to the Health Department.

One of the program’s biggest champions was David Banks. In a recent interview with Chalkbeat, Banks said he wasn’t paying attention to the initiative. “I don’t know where it really went. I don’t know how impactful it is now.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in September that improvements had been observed regarding youth mental health metrics and suicide vulnerability indicators. Among such risk indicators: Persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness had improved from 33% to 40% from 2023 to 2025.

NYC Teenspace will continue to serve clients while that process continues.

Keep reading