LOWER MERION \u2014 After months of discussion, the Lower Merion School Board approved a new student technology policy that scales back screen time and eliminates individual device assignments for younger students starting in the 2026\u201327 school year.<\/p>\n
Under the new rules, kindergarten through second grade will not be issued individual devices by the district. Technology will not be used for routine classroom instruction. If technology is used, it will be minimal, highly structured, and limited to specific educational purposes such as testing.<\/p>\n
Third and fourth grades will have limited use of school-issued technology. The devices will remain in the classroom or another designated location.<\/p>\n
In grades five and six, students will have supervised, teacher-directed access to school-issued technology resources. They will be issued devices, but they will not be required to use a computer at home.<\/p>\n
In the seventh and eighth grades, students will be issued devices for instructional use during the school day and may take those devices to and from school.<\/p>\n
High school students in grades 9 through 12 will be assigned individual devices to carry throughout the day and to and from school.<\/p>\n
\u201cDevices may be used for approved instructional purposes and school-related work in accordance with district expectations, with increasing student responsibility for appropriate, effective and independent use,\u201d according to the section of the new policy on technology use under the high school section.<\/p>\n
The new policy\u2019s approval followed months of sometimes heated discussions between the board and district parents and students, many of whom wanted the district to allow an opt-out policy.<\/p>\n
Despite the district celebrating its one-to-one computer program nearly two decades ago, concern has grown about too much reliance on computers and screen time for students.<\/p>\n
The board meeting to approve the new policy was held over Zoom and streamed on the district website after officials shut down a live policy committee meeting in early August. The policy committee then completed that meeting over Zoom.<\/p>\n
School district officials said they made the decision to shut down the live policy committee meeting due to what they described as disruptions from the public.<\/p>\n
What the district called disruptions at the policy meeting were due to the board limiting public comment to a total of 45 minutes.<\/p>\n
The limit meant many members of the public were shut off from commenting. So when some members of the public demanded to have their voices heard by the district, school officials called that disruptive.<\/p>\n
At the start of the board business meeting where the final vote was taken, Kerry Sautner, board president, read from a prepared statement about what she described as disruptions at meetings and threats to school officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason we are holding it via Zoom tonight and only via Zoom and livestreamed is due to threats to our school district administrative team and our board and disruptions to two recent meetings that necessitated multiple recesses and concluded the last policy meeting virtually,\u201d Sautner said.<\/p>\n
Sautner said any future misconduct will be addressed to the extent permitted by law.<\/p>\n
Board member Abby Rubin, one of two members to vote against the new policy, questioned the district\u2019s stance that threats were made to school officials, since leadership failed to produce evidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard from the board president that there were threats made against the board and the superintendent,\u201d Rubin said. \u201cI have not seen these threats, nor was my input sought about shifting to a virtual meeting. Safety is our No. 1 priority, but determining what threatens that safety is a decision that should be arrived at after thoughtful deliberations by the full board.\u201d<\/p>\n
Board member Jason Herman, who was one of the seven members supporting the policy, said he appreciated the discussions on the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have to keep in mind that this policy and AR is a huge step forward from what we previously had. It incorporates parents\u2019 concerns. It reduces technology in the classroom, provides guidance instruction for teachers and staff. It\u2019s also important to note that this policy, like all policies, are works in progress. As the AR notes, we will continue to review and revise this policy and AR and identify areas of improvement as we move along,\u201d Herman said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOWER MERION \u2014 After months of discussion, the Lower Merion School Board approved a new student technology policy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[182,183,185,184,186,200,28],"class_list":["post-271878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-local-news","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-township","tag-montgomery-county","tag-pennsylvania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271878","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=271878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}