{"id":169482,"date":"2026-04-18T17:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T17:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/169482\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T17:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T17:12:11","slug":"parents-schools-clash-over-movement-to-abolish-screens-the-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/169482\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents, Schools Clash Over Movement to Abolish Screens \u2013 The 74"},"content":{"rendered":"

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With more parents pushing for limits on screen time in the classroom, Vermont state Rep. Rob Hunter, a Democrat, wants to make it easier for them to opt their children out of using laptops and iPads.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

He co-sponsored legislation<\/a> this year that would give parents an ed-tech \u201cright of refusal.\u201d A former English teacher, he was never a fan of the shift toward every student having their own laptop. Technology, he said, isn\u2019t making students any smarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, we know it\u2019s making them dumber,\u201d he said, expressing a view shared by parents across the country, especially those with students in the elementary grades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When his fellow lawmaker Rep. Leanne Harple read the bill, she imagined how tough it might be for teachers to accommodate such requests. An English teacher herself, she also speaks from experience. Her students do research online, where the information is more up to date than in books and academic journals. A 2024 American Federation of Teachers survey<\/a> showed 83% of teachers use technology in the classroom daily.<\/p>\n

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RelatedSchools Are Paying for Ed Tech That Students Never Use \u2014 Could A New Contract Model Change That?<\/p>\n

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The bill \u201cwould create, in some cases, a lot more work,\u201d she said. For every assignment, teachers would \u201chave to create an alternative that\u2019s completely analog.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their opposing views on the topic reflect a growing national debate. Parents who advocated for bell-to-bell cellphone bans are now targeting Chromebooks and other ed tech. Influenced by researchers like Jonathan Haidt and Jared Cooney Horvath, who argue that cellphones and classroom technology have harmed students\u2019 development, they\u2019ve mobilized in Facebook groups. They\u2019re demanding pencil-and-paper assignments and asking teachers to excuse their kids from computer-based math and reading apps. Their pleas have sparked pushback from districts that for years have relied on technology for everything from curriculum to testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn August, almost no one was talking about this, and now I\u2019m having no other conversations,\u201d said Kelly Clancy, a mom of three in South Brooklyn, New York, who also serves on her local community education council. \u201cThere\u2019s a sea change in parents realizing that they don\u2019t want their kids in front of screens.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s among those challenging the New York City schools\u2019 use of digital programs. She refused to let teachers enter her kids\u2019 work into Writable<\/a>, an AI tool from the curriculum company HMH that generates feedback on student writing. But when she tried to opt her children out of i-Ready, a widely used testing program from the company Curriculum Associates, she met resistance. The tests are a \u201cbaseline component\u201d of the district\u2019s assessment system, David Pretto, superintendent of District 20, wrote in an email. Her school\u2019s principal, he said, \u201cis not in the position to exclude your child from universal screening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clancy didn\u2019t take no for an answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will get legal advice if necessary, but my children will not complete these,\u201d she wrote back.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the district said any tool using student data \u201cmust undergo a rigorous \u2026 review process to meet strict privacy, security and compliance standards before it is approved for use.\u201d Officials urged parents to contact local schools with their concerns.<\/p>\n

\"\"When New York City parent Kelly Clancy said she wanted to opt her children out of i-Ready, a local superintendent said she couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Across the country, the Seattle Public Schools has advised staff that \u201cfamilies may not opt out of district-adopted digital curriculum,\u201d but a spokesperson for the district told The 74 that \u201cthis is an evolving landscape,\u201d and \u201cwe will continue to review and update the guidance as needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents in Pennsylvania\u2019s Lower Merion School District are also determined to keep their students off Chromebooks at school.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re saying we can\u2019t, but we\u2019ll find a way,\u201d Yair Lev, a parent of two, said after a community meeting<\/a> last month in which Superintendent Frank Ranelli said opting out wasn\u2019t possible because the curriculum is computer-based.<\/p>\n

Teachers, Lev said, are caught in the middle. He collected anonymous comments<\/a> from five teachers, who said students often access gaming sites and YouTube during class, and even make video calls to students in other classrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should be clear districtwide policies and parameters for when laptops should and should not be used, rather than leaving major decisions to classroom-by-classroom discretion,\u201d one wrote.<\/p>\n

\"\"Frank Ranelli, superintendent of the Lower Merion School District, outside of Philadelphia, spoke to parents in March about the district\u2019s technology policies. (Ron Stanford)<\/p>\n

Not \u2018our best moment\u2019<\/p>\n

Lev, a cardiologist and professor at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, said he\u2019s not opposed to technology. He consults for cardiology startups using AI and has taken the lead on AI use in his division at the hospital. But he and his wife realized that \u201ckids are being exposed to a lot of screens, and we decided to try to reduce it at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

In some ways, he represents many of the parents pushing for tech opt outs. His children are young, and they\u2019re starting school at a time when Haidt, a social psychologist, warns<\/a> that cellphones and social media have harmed children\u2019s mental health. Lev\u2019s kids are also beginning their education after the pandemic, when parents are demanding more say over what\u2019s taking place in the classroom and data breaches<\/a> have compromised student privacy.<\/p>\n

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RelatedDistricts Race to Apply For Funds to Improve Students\u2019 At-Home Internet Access<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe image of technology in schools that\u2019s seared into every parent\u2019s mind is the lockdown version of technology. It wasn\u2019t our best moment,\u201d said Joseph South, chief innovation officer at the International Society for Technology in Education, which merged in 2023 with ASCD, a major curriculum organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Until the pandemic, Elyssa East, a New York City mom, was raising her son screen-free. That became impossible during school closures. Around the same time, she learned that he had some learning difficulties and would \u201creally fall apart when it came to any instruction on the screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Online math programs like Zearn and IXL made him feel \u201cdefeated,\u201d she said, because they were assigned for remediation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHere is this technology that\u2019s supposed to help him, but it makes him feel even worse than a human teacher would,\u201d East said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She eventually switched him to a private school. She has opted him out of math apps and he writes on an old electric typewriter.<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200b\u201dHe likes that a lot,\u201d she said. Compared to a laptop, \u201cit\u2019s a totally different experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Elyssa East\u2019s son, now in sixth grade, uses a typewriter at home to do his homework rather than a laptop. (Courtesy of Elyssa East)<\/p>\n

\u2018Caught in the crossfire\u2019<\/p>\n

Some teachers have no problem with less technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dylan Kane, a seventh grade math teacher in Lake County, Colorado, near Aspen, went tech-free in January<\/a>. Students, he wrote, are more focused, are completing more work and spend less time \u201cfussing with logistics,\u201d like connecting to the internet or forgetting their Chromebook at home.<\/p>\n

Like many parents, he was influenced by Horvath\u2019s The Digital Delusion<\/a>. In his 2025 book, the cognitive neuroscientist argues that the widespread use of classroom technology has left students distracted and unable to retain information.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But prior to January, Kane never had a parent request to opt their child out of using computers or specific software. Even during parent-teacher conferences this spring, his decision to ditch Chromebooks in class never came up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI work in a small, rural town that\u2019s relatively low-income, not a lot of college-educated parents. I think much of the tech backlash from parents is coming from the more-online, higher-educated folks,\u201d he said. He thinks trying to accommodate individual parents\u2019 objections would be tricky. \u201cTeachers could be caught in the crossfire because they have to deal with district-mandated online programs and then potentially parent opt-outs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

South at ISTE+ASCD said he\u2019s heard plenty of \u201chorror stories\u201d about technology, like apps dominated by advertising and students spending class time \u201cshooting aliens\u201d on the screen. But those examples are often due to teachers using a program that was never vetted by their district or \u201csome random kid who found a workaround,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He and Richard Culatta, the organization\u2019s CEO, added that bills<\/a> moving through state legislatures that limit screen time don\u2019t necessarily address parents\u2019 other concerns like cyberbullying, protecting student data or improving the overall quality of instruction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of the bills require paper worksheets to be used instead of technology, said Culatta, who quipped that he often feels like he\u2019s in a \u201ctime warp.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no quality indicator,\u201d he said. \u201cYou could literally take any garbage worksheet and it would be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Rapid innovation\u2019<\/p>\n

Opt-out requests have forced districts to be more thoughtful about how they use technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Worcester Public Schools in central Massachusetts is like a lot of districts. It went through \u201ca period of rapid innovation and tech acquisition\u201d prior to the pandemic to make sure \u201cteachers and students had the tools needed to be future-ready,\u201d said Sarah Kyriazis, director of the district\u2019s Office of Innovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Schools added even more ed tech tools during COVID lockdowns for remote and hybrid learning. Now some parents are questioning those decisions at a time of \u201cnational concern about data, privacy, security and screen time,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s school committee has so far declined<\/a> to allow parents to opt out of ed tech programs. But Kyriazis is collecting feedback from teachers on the apps they feel are most important for instruction. The goal, she said, is to whittle down the amount of data sent through online platforms to third-party vendors. Principals and teachers, she said, should be able to \u201cspeak with parents about each app and its purpose in the classroom.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Further west, the Northampton, Massachusetts, district is accommodating opt-out requests from about 12 parents. To do so, teachers must come up with activities that allow students to learn from the same curriculum as their peers \u201cwithout using the disputed programs,\u201d said Superintendent Portia Bonner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Laura Carney Erny, who has a second grader in the district, hasn\u2019t tried to opt her son out of tech yet, but she\u2019s thinking about it for third grade. Even learning which programs the school used took \u201cmonths of back-and-forth emails\u201d with teachers and administrators, she said.<\/p>\n

Parents say they don\u2019t want to further complicate the lives of teachers, especially those who lack classroom aides. Northampton lost several paraprofessionals<\/a> in 2024 who were paid with temporary COVID relief funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t blame teachers for relying on tech because it\u2019s an easy thing to do,\u201d she said. \u201cSome of these programs help keep the kids in their seats.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, former teacher Kate Brody is among those who have opted their children out of practice sessions on i-Ready, now the subject of a federal lawsuit<\/a> over student privacy. She decided the program was a problem when her first grader couldn\u2019t tear himself away from the screen to use the bathroom and started having accidents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to teach full time,\u201d she said. \u201cI definitely don\u2019t want to create a world where we\u2019re asking teachers to do multiple lesson plans and monitor half the class on the computer and do analog lessons for the other half.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unfair to teachers to field opt-out requests every year, she said. That\u2019s why, as a board member for Schools Beyond Screens, an advocacy group of parents and educators, she backs a proposed resolution<\/a> that calls for limits on the use of technology for all students, especially in the early grades. The board will vote on the plan April 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now,\u201d she said, \u201cit\u2019s the Wild West.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did you use this article in your work?<\/p>\n

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We\u2019d love to hear how The 74\u2019s reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers. Tell us how<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter With more parents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[76334,227,5679,36525,1250,183,185,184,186,237,139,23794,76335,30080],"class_list":{"0":"post-169482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lower-merion","8":"tag-ed-tech","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-internet","11":"tag-k-12","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-lower-merion","14":"tag-lower-merion-headlines","15":"tag-lower-merion-news","16":"tag-lower-merion-township","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-parents","20":"tag-screen-time","21":"tag-vermont"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}