{"id":234546,"date":"2026-07-03T09:32:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/234546\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T09:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:32:21","slug":"lower-merion-school-district-scraps-technology-policy-in-monday-night-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/234546\/","title":{"rendered":"Lower Merion School District scraps technology policy in Monday night vote"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ARDMORE, Pa. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.phl17.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WPHL<\/a>) \u2014 New information about a Chromebook controversy in the Lower Merion School District.<\/p>\n<p>In a Monday night vote, the school board scrapped the existing technology policy to pave the way for a brand-new set of rules. <\/p>\n<p>This comes after months of debate over the 1:1 device program that provides Chromebooks or iPads to students.<\/p>\n<p>Many parents have questioned the amount of screen time students are exposed to and whether enough safeguards are in place to monitor device usage outside the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>The policy included language regarding a parent\u2019s right to opt their child out of receiving a district-issued device. <\/p>\n<p>However, the administration recently pushed back, stating that a true \u201copt-out\u201d isn\u2019t possible. <\/p>\n<p>By repealing the policy on Monday night, the board wiped away that \u201copt-out\u201d clause, leaving the district in a temporary limbo. <\/p>\n<p>Parents and students voiced their concern at the school board meeting.<\/p>\n<p>However, some board members pushed back, such as Anna Shurak.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy not repealing that policy, it does not allow educators or our administrators to do what\u2019s necessary to enact the change the community has been asking for,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>According to Action News at 10 on PHL 17, a new proposal that will be considered states technology won\u2019t be used for classroom instruction for K-2 students, they won\u2019t be issued an individual device until the 5th grade, and they won\u2019t be required to take it home until 7th grade.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tSuggest a Correction<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tClose Modal<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tSuggest a Correction<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARDMORE, Pa. (WPHL) \u2014 New information about a Chromebook controversy in the Lower Merion School District. In a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[30224,101249,183,185,184,2738,186,200,28,503,96489],"class_list":["post-234546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-ardmore","tag-chrome-books","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-school-district","tag-lower-merion-township","tag-montgomery-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-technology","tag-technology-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234546","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=234546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}