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Ariah Barnes works on a laptop during an AP African American Studies class at Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy on Dec. 15, 2023, in Dallas.<\/p>\n
Smiley N. Pool\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
At the beginning of the pandemic, school districts<\/a> scrambled to get laptops and tablets into the hands of every student as they shifted to online learning.<\/p>\n Six years later, those devices are a near-ubiquitous presence in many Texas classrooms<\/a>. A growing number of parents are concerned about how much screen time their children get at school, and North Texas districts are trying to find a balance between the benefits of learning the tech and the potential negative impacts.<\/p>\n Related: Here’s when North Texas students head back to school<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Richardson ISD leaders are rolling out a policy they hope will cut back on screen time while still allowing teachers to use online content in their lessons. The move comes as other districts across Texas and nationwide consider limits on how devices like tablets and laptops can be used at school.<\/p>\n Some parents and policymakers worry the increased presence of screens in classrooms could disrupt students\u2019 sleep patterns, affect social-emotional growth<\/a> and create a source of distraction.\u00a0<\/p>\n Scott Ricamore, father of two elementary-aged students in the district, said he’s happy to see the district pulling back on how much technology teachers use in class. He’d like to see the district go further and scale back the use of devices for any lesson that isn’t about how to use those devices themselves, he said. Still, he wants students in the district to have access to top-of-the-line equipment and instruction about how to use that technology.<\/p>\n “We want them to understand how to use it,” he said. “But what we don’t want is for kids to be using a device all day for all their learning.”<\/p>\n As school leaders across the state grapple with what role technology should play in classrooms, one expert says it\u2019s less important to focus on how much time students spend on screens than what they\u2019re doing during that time.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThe amount of time on a screen doesn’t seem to matter that much when it comes to academic outcomes,\u201d said Liz Kolb, a professor at the University of Michigan\u2019s Marsal Family School of Education. \u201cIt’s much more about the type of screen use and what you’re doing on the screen that makes a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Some Texas districts consider curtailing screen time<\/p>\n State lawmakers passed a bill last year banning students from using cellphones<\/a> and other devices such as smartwatches and headphones during the school day, including at lunch and between classes. The ban went into effect at the beginning of the 2025-26 school year.<\/p>\n Related: This Dallas ISD middle school banned cellphones years before the rest of Texas. Here’s what happened<\/a><\/p>\n Since the bill\u2019s passage, some school districts across the state have gone further, putting restrictions on how much time students spend using laptops and tablets. In Lockhart ISD, about 30 miles south of Austin, board members voted last spring to approve a policy reducing screen time and creating more time for outdoor play. In Garland ISD, officials rolled out a policy at the beginning of the 2025-26 school year limiting screen time to one hour per day for students ages 2 to 5 and two hours per day for students age 6 and older. And now in Richardson ISD, district leaders are cutting down on \u201cpassive screen time\u201d during the upcoming school year.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Related: Search Dallas-area elementary, middle school 2026 STAAR results<\/a><\/p>\n Under the new guidelines, teachers will no longer give students extra screen time as an incentive or reward, said Richardson ISD Superintendent Tabitha Branum. Students also won\u2019t be able to spend the last few minutes of a class period on their devices if they finish their work or get done with a test early, she said.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean screens will be completely absent from the classroom, Branum said. Teachers will still be able to use online photos and videos as teaching tools, she said \u2014 for example, a science teacher will still be able to pull up a short video of an animal the class is learning about. But district leaders are asking teachers to be judicious about how much they\u2019re exposing students to screens in class, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Richardson ISD Superintendent Tabitha Branum speaks during the Dallas Regional Chamber’s 2022 State of Public Education on Sept. 27, 2022 in Dallas.<\/p>\n Elias Valverde II\/Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Related: Abbott launches teacher-led commission to shape Texas education<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Branum said the change isn\u2019t intended to be a complete overhaul of the way the district handles technology in the classroom, so much as a reset. During the pandemic, the use of screens skyrocketed because teachers had no other way to work with their students. Now that schools have largely returned to normal, district leaders need to offer guidance to teachers about what appropriate use of technology looks like, and assurances to parents that the district will only use technology in ways that support learning.<\/p>\n Parents weigh in on Richardson ISD policy<\/p>\n Zo\u00eb Lewis, a mother of two boys in Richardson, said the widespread use of tablets in Richardson ISD was a major problem for her oldest son. He has ADHD, which creates what she describes as an unhealthy obsession with screens. For that reason, Lewis and her husband don\u2019t let him use a tablet at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n But at school, her son was on an iPad every day, Lewis said. Some of that time was the kind of passive screen time the district is looking to eliminate, she said, but even the educational apps the district used for instruction included games that could be a major source of distraction for students with ADHD.<\/p>\n Last year, Lewis withdrew her son from Canyon Creek Elementary School in Richardson ISD and moved him to Shelton School, a private school in Far North Dallas for students with learning disabilities. Since the move, her son has thrived, Lewis said. She and her husband suspect the fact Shelton School doesn\u2019t use screens is a big part of the reason. Lewis acknowledges Richardson ISD can\u2019t craft a policy that eliminates screens from schools completely. But nothing short of that would work for her son, she said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any way that daily tablet time could have been OK for him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Cassie Scott has three kids, two of whom have graduated from Richardson ISD. Her youngest daughter will start fourth grade next month. She\u2019s noticed a big difference in how technology affects her youngest daughter, compared with her older two kids. Scott\u2019s daughter was in pre-K in a different district at the beginning of the pandemic, so she was exposed to more extensive use of screens for school at a much younger age than her older siblings.<\/p>\n Scott, a former special education coordinator in the district, said she\u2019s noticed her daughter seems less resilient than her older siblings. If a task seems too hard, she\u2019s quick to give up on it, Scott said. There\u2019s no emotional outburst, she said, she simply walks away from it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Scott said her daughter also has what she worries is an unhealthy fixation on technology. She always thinks she needs a screen in her hand, Scott said. She sees the same impulse in her two older kids, too, but she said her daughter is of an age where she should spend her time playing outside and not buried in her tablet.<\/p>\n Erin Price, a parent, school counselor and former teacher in Richardson ISD, said she doesn\u2019t see the policy as a major departure from the expectations that were already in place in the district. But she said it can be valuable to clarify those guidelines and communicate with the community about what expectations are.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Students hand their laptops to the side before walking through detections at Mansfield High School in Mansfield on Oct. 27, 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n Juan Figueroa\/Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n The way teachers use technology in the classroom shifted after the pandemic, Price said. Teachers got access to new tools that, in many cases, help them do their jobs better, she said. But that shift also affected the balance between the use of screens in the classroom and pencil-and-paper work. Sometimes, she said, using classroom technology effectively means not using devices at all.<\/p>\n The cellphone ban that lawmakers passed last year doesn\u2019t apply to district-issued devices like laptops and tablets, and there\u2019s been little movement in the Texas Legislature toward broader restrictions on classroom technology. In a statement, state Rep. Caroline Fairly, R-Amarillo, the author of the Texas House version of the cellphone bill, said she\u2019d like to see more school districts adopt those restrictions on their own.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is exactly the kind of local responsiveness we should want to see in Texas,\u201d Fairly said. \u201cDistricts don\u2019t need to wait on Austin to act when parents raise legitimate concerns about screen time and school-issued devices. I would love to see more districts across the state following in Richardson ISD\u2019s footsteps. When schools take a hard look at how devices are actually being used and make changes based on what parents and teachers are telling them, that\u2019s good governance at the local level.\u201d<\/p>\n School screen time gets attention elsewhere<\/p>\n Garland ISD introduced its guidelines around screen time in the classroom at the beginning of last school year. Besides limiting screen time, the guidelines also recommend taking frequent breaks and balancing schoolwork with physical activity and social interaction. The guidelines came out of recommendations from the district\u2019s School Health Advisory Committee, which were based in large part on recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics.<\/p>\n For years, the academy released recommendations that included limits for school-related screen time. But the organization moved away from that practice last year. Rather than specifying limits, the academy made recommendations for how schools incorporate screens into their classrooms, including minimizing passive tasks like filling out digital worksheets and ensuring screen time doesn\u2019t crowd out physical activity and social interaction.\u00a0<\/p>\n At a meeting last month, members of Coppell ISD\u2019s School Health Advisory Council presented board members with a report that included recommendations similar to those in Garland ISD\u2019s guidelines. The board is expected to discuss the issue in the coming months.<\/p>\n Third grader Natalie Davis watches on a tablet as two Coppell High School juniors read an Indian folktale titled “Sukhu and Dukhu” using Zoom, to dual language elementary students at W.H. Wilson Elementary in Coppell, on April 19, 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ben Torres\/Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Although only a few Texas districts have cut back on how much screen time students are exposed to at school, education leaders and policymakers elsewhere are taking steps to limit technology in the classroom. In May, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill limiting screen time to 60 minutes per day for students up to fifth grade. Following the signing, Reynolds and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited an elementary school in Gilbert,<\/a> about 40 miles north of Des Moines, where Kennedy announced a new surgeon general\u2019s warning on the dangers of screen use.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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