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Juan Garcia works with his third graders one at\u00a0HISD\u2019s A.A. Milne Elementary School in Houston, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. As schools across the country curb devices, HISD is expanding educational technology and AI use, raising parent concerns about screen time and lesson quality.<\/p>\n
Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
While many school districts across the country are reducing screen time for students, Houston\u00a0ISD is going in the opposite direction with\u00a0its educational technology, prompting concerns from some parents.<\/p>\n
Districts in California<\/a>, Pennsylvania<\/a> and Texas<\/a> have introduced new guidelines to limit devices in classrooms after parents have protested the screens are harming their children\u2019s development.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, leaders at HISD continue to adopt technology and experiment with AI, such as AI-generated curriculum, ChatGPT for special education, and other learning platforms. All high school students receive a Chromebook, and in August, HISD will debut its new AI-focused model,\u00a0called Future 2 schools,\u00a0which have drawn mixed reactions<\/a> from the community.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n TECH POLICIES: From Chromebooks to iPads, here’s what tech policies look like at Houston-area schools<\/a><\/p>\n State-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles said during an April virtual town hall<\/a> that the district does not “overwhelm” students with screen time during the day. In fact, he said the district is \u201cgeared to non-screen time\u201d and people are complaining that students are reading too many paper packets.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re not anti-AI. We’re not overwhelmed by AI. There won’t be a lot of screen time (in Future 2) but there will be some screen time, and we’re not going to apologize for that,\u201d Miles said. \u201cKids need a little bit of that if they’re going to be successful in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n However, some parents like Casey Williams worry that their children spend too much of their school day online. Williams said her son takes exams online at Heights High School,\u00a0and his science and history classes rely on third-party platforms.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n She said the extra screen time has made her son, who has ADHD, less engaged and more distracted at school. Williams has watched her son play a video from an online quiz and then leave the room until it\u2019s over. Another time, she saw him click through lessons from an educational software program and do the bare minimum \u201cto get the teacher off his back.\u201d<\/p>\n He told her the online tools and education platforms make him feel like his educators are less invested in his learning.\u00a0<\/p>\n ALSO READ: HISD reaches the 3rd anniversary of the state takeover. What\u2019s been lost, gained since 2023?<\/a><\/p>\n “As a parent, I hate hearing that,” Williams said. “And when I look at the actual content, yes, he definitely has better things to do.”<\/p>\n HISD said it provides Chromebooks to all students at high school campuses. However, the district did not respond to a request for comment on its policies regarding screen use for students.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n What the experts are saying<\/p>\n Experts said increased technology use in schools can have long-term effects on students.<\/p>\n David Kahn, a clinical assistant professor of psychology at Texas A&M University, said schools need to make sure that they are not exposing students to an excessive amount of screen use, which can cause attention problems for children.<\/p>\n \u201cI recommend that tablets be used at a minimum at the elementary school level,\u201d Kahn said. \u201cAnd then, of course, once you get into middle school and high school, certainly by high school, it becomes a little bit more age appropriate, for a lot of the instruction to involve tablet-based learning.\u201d<\/p>\n Kahn said he supports more traditional assignments with paper and pencils in Texas schools. However, he said they must expose students to screens to a certain extent because students take state standardized exams online, which measure their performance in critical subjects like reading and math.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n STAAR SCORES: Texas elementary, middle school STAAR results are out. See how your Houston-area school performed.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is screens are a big part of our daily lives,\u201d Kahn said. \u201cThey’re not going to go away, and they’re going to be a big part of our children’s lives, but we also need to make sure that from a developmental perspective, we are giving children the access to traditional paper-pencil activities, traditional project-based activities that have always been part of learning.\u201d<\/p>\n HISD\u2019s approach to technology has also expanded beyond student devices.<\/p>\n The district has also embraced generative artificial intelligence under Miles, including a partnership with an AI company<\/a> to produce thousands of reading passages and the use of ChatGPT to help teachers manage special education compliance<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Williams said there’s not much of a difference in what her son learns online in school versus the paper packets which she says are AI-generated. She said she’s seen her son and his friends become irritated and offended by the use of AI to produce class work, which she said is often riddled with typos and errors.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “There is an entire wealth of curricula out there that’s not AI-generated, that’s not screen-focused, that if they were just to give the teachers enough autonomy to use it, it certainly exists,” Williams said. “I’ve seen quality curriculum. I know what that looks like, so it’s not like, \u2018Oh, they either have screen time or they have these paper packets.\u2019 That’s a false dichotomy.”<\/p>\n