Screen Time & Technology Usein Pennsylvania K-12 Schools

“My biggest concern is school devices undermining screen time policies at home. My 5th grader exclusively has homework on her Chromebook; it's difficult to police where homework ends and YouTube time begins.”

“My daughter spends way too much time on screens at school. Much of her curriculum is screen based. She’s exhausted and unregulated when she gets home.”

“I’m very concerned about the lack of evidence of growth using ed tech vs “old school methods”. The data suggests [there] is no growth using ed tech and could argue it is creating a disconnect between student and teacher/classroom. The more we rely on AI and Ed Tech, the more detrimental to the development of our children.”

“Despite district filters and automated device usage reports sent to me, my 8th grader spends a huge amount of time playing games, watching YouTube shorts, and checking professional sports statistics while at school. When he comes home, I spend time sitting with him helping him stay on track while he gets his online school work completed.”

“My daughter often complains that the screens “bother my eyes” and she prefers paper and pencil tests and assignments. It seems silly to deny that when her eyes hurt and the goal is student learning. If she says she learns best with paper and pencil, why not make that an option? I know that computer testing makes life easier on the admin side… but student learning experience should be the top priority.”

“I would like screens banned in elementary school ideally but at minimum a return to shared bank that they visit on a rotation. I think it’s terrible that my kids use screens more than they have gym in a week.”

“Our school district allows YouTube, which is not something our children have access to at home. Our district also uses Aristotle, however it works haphazardly. This past fall, my 12 year old came across and Ai chat site through his school issued Chromebook.”

“My 6 year old son in kindergarten told me today that “most of his friends watch YouTube on the school iPad” 6… years… old… in kindergarten.”

“We were not given an option of wanting a device. We are also responsible for any damages that may occur to said device throughout the year. Students also bring device home throughout the summer further undermining our strict no device policy at home.”

“I genuinely have no idea how much time my daughter is in her iPad every day. The school doesn’t communicate it well. We used to do screens on a regular basis at home but we have stopped because of how much ambiguity there is with her school usage.”

“My son’s teacher told us that there is no way for the school to block everything inappropriate. As parents, I feel as if the school is undoing a lot of our hard work when it comes to limiting screen time and ensuring we know what they are accessing.”

“As a parent, I am not allowed to put any monitoring software on the school device. This makes me extremely uncomfortable as my children are allowed to utilize youtube and other websites where harmful content can easily be found.”

“We are very concerned that screens are overused and that schools are not following practices that are best for children from multiple standpoints (mental, physical, social, educational, safety, ets.) The devices have restricted some parental access to their students’ work and assessments. This is a huge concern.”

“I do not think that kindergarteners should have computers or personal screen time AT ALL. Starting later (even third or fourth grade) would be better. I have looked at the “educational” programs my children use at school, and most, especially the reading apps, have no educational value at all in my opinion.”

“The School District of Philadelphia issue chromebooks to families during COVID but then kept them in place afterwards without asking families if we wanted to take that on. We’re now responsible for these devices and we don’t want to be. Additionally, the protections aren’t great and parents can’t put controls on them.”

“I’m concerned about auto-correct on Google correcting all of my son’s work before he submits it. Most of his assignments and projects are done on Google Slides. He is in high school and spends a lot of time at school using his Chromebook to watch Youtube and read the news.”

“Data privacy is my only concern. Use of third-party services are so tempting for schools that do not have the budgets or skills to build the technology they want to use or teach in-house.”

“Children are not taught how to read/write/type before being given chromebooks to use for school assignments. Kindergarteners should not have Chromebooks at all!”