LAUSD will ban classroom screen time before second grade and has enacted limited use for older students, under a pioneering policy approved Tuesday by the school board that reflects growing backlash from parents and educators concerned about an over-reliance on computers and technology in K-12 learning.
Grassroots coalitions have have pushed for limits in California and nationwide as parents have become alarmed over how digital activities are replacing hands-on learning and peer interaction.
Beginning in August, LAUSD guidelines will prohibit in-school screen time in preschool through first grade. It will restrict daily screen time to one hour in second through fifth grade beginning in November — including homework assignments. Middle school students will be limited to one hour of screen time spread throughout the week in each class, for a total of six hours weekly to account for a variety of class schedules. The time will increase to 1.5 hours for high school students, not to exceed 10 hours a week.
And students will no longer be given a school computer to take home every day.
“It’s an incredibly robust and groundbreaking document,” said Nick Melvoin, who introduced the initial resolution in March. “It’s going to be the basis for reform throughout the country if not the world.”
The district will monitor the new policy with new software that will allow it to track screen time minutes across its devices.
National momentum for school screen Time limits
LAUSD’s action in April to devise new limits spurred interest in the issue across the nation, said Jodi Carreon, who co-runs the California chapter of the Distraction-Free Schools Policy Project, a leader in the movement.
Signatures on education technology petitions nationwide skyrocketed 11-fold following LAUSD’s decision, according to data from the petition company Four Norms.
“This is a pretty historic, new change that is going to ripple through the state and country,” said Anya Meskin, deputy director for Schools Beyond Screens. “We haven’t seen a single district — especially a district of this size — do a comprehensive overhaul of their entire approach to technology. We think this is going to become a gold standard.”
Expert guidelines and shifting classroom tech use
In New York City, city council members have pushed for a moratorium on artificial intelligence as the public school system figures out more “rigorous guardrails” for its use in the classroom. States including Alabama and Utah have sought to implement statewide limits on screen time by age level and others have sought to more thoroughly vet educational technology.
Across California, some school districts have limited student access to outside websites such as YouTube and have shifted away from take-home devices.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends families prioritize non-digital activities such as play and social interaction for children 5 and under. Experts have linked excessive screen time to language, cognitive and social-emotional delays in young children. The surgeon general’s office issued screen time restrictions in May that recommended limiting children between ages 1.5 and 6 years old to one hour of screen time a day and children between 6 and 18 to two hours of screen time a day.
Still, technology can be helpful to learning if it is used and designed intentionally.
LAUSD’s new policy calls for prioritizing teacher-led instruction over using ed-tech platforms for learning. The district is now turning to face-to-face tutoring, for example, that will be teacher led.
Computer learning will, in essence, turn somewhat retro with classes using alternative options such as laptop carts or computer lab models. Once exception to the daily screen time limits will be periodic online standardized state and district tests, including on i-Ready.
How teachers use technology in the classroom will also change. Schools will have to limit students’ exposure to advertising and commercial promotion and technology use will be limited to educational purposes, meaning that teachers will be encouraged to avoid showing background videos and instead focus on curriculum-aligned media.
Websites such as YouTube, social media and streaming platforms will be blocked for students.
Some families were opposed to the district’s decision to implement strict screen time guidelines, calling for balance so that students with limited access to technology could still learn to use computers.
“I ask you, please, to be careful,” said one parent. “Sometimes a policy that has the intention of helping maybe has consequences that can harm children, especially for students in low income families.”
Next up: an AI moratorium debate
Although members of the parent-led Schools Beyond Screens applauded the policy, they expressed concern over the district’s decision to increase screen time for second through fifth graders. In earlier draft, students in second and third grade were to be limited to 20 minutes of screen time a day and students in fourth and fifth grade were limited to 30 minutes a day.
Amid discussion of the finalized policy, parents have their sights on a new frontier: artificial intelligence use in the classroom.
Speakers pushed for the board to implement a moratorium on the use of generative artificial intelligence in the classroom. Currently, students 13 and older are permitted to use the technology, but parents want to stop its use entirely while the district’s AI committee creates new guidelines.
“We cannot just expect kids not to use AI,” Katie Pace, whose children attend LAUSD, said at the board meeting. “These devices are like candy, and AI is just giving them their fixes faster. We have to be the adults in the room, the ones that take it away from them.”
Board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin acknowledged parent concerns over Google Gemini, which is enabled on school devices. District officials said they are unable to remove the feature.
“It’s such a big contract we have,” Ortiz Franklin said. “It seems to me we’re a powerhouse we should be able to tell them.”
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