The Los Angeles Unified School Board is set to vote Tuesday afternoon on moving toward limiting screen time for students at school.<\/p>\n
The resolution<\/a> requires the school district to create a policy that includes maximum daily and weekly screen time limits based on grade level and \u201cencourage the use of paper and pen assignments.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe had not recalibrated or reset our relationship with technology post-COVID,\u201d said school board member Nick Melvoin, who brought forth the measure. \u201cSix years ago, we sent every kid in L.A. home with a device, which was a lifeline. \u2026 But when they came back, I’m still seeing kids as young as preschool on devices all day.\u201d<\/p>\n If adopted, the district would create a policy that the school board would approve by June and that would be implemented next school year.<\/p>\n Why is the board considering this?<\/p>\n Research has shown<\/a> excessive usage of screens can hurt children\u2019s mental and physical health. <\/p>\n \u201cAddiction-like use of short-form video content \u2014 including YouTube and social media platforms \u2014 are correlated with higher levels of social anxiety among adolescents,\u201d the resolution reads.<\/p>\n Sandra Martinez Roe, a parent in northeast L.A., said she had tried to limit screen time at home for her now fourth-grade son, but in second grade, he started bringing home a laptop from school for his homework.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aI just feel very strongly about children being able to experience childhood and really delaying the tech as long as possible. And when my son came home with a Chromebook and started talking about the Minecraft games and this game and that game, I about lost it,\u201d Martinez Roe said.<\/p>\n Martinez Roe is a member of the parent advocacy group Schools Beyond Screens<\/a>, which has been pushing for the resolution.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aHe didn’t understand why the keyboard wasn’t in alphabetical order. And this was a real big concern for me because I thought, he’s in second grade, he’s learning how to read, how to write, and you’re expecting him to do this all on a Chromebook without a typing class first?\u201d Martinez Roe said.<\/p>\n How is this different from the cellphone ban?\u00a0<\/p>\n While the school district currently has a ban on cell phones <\/a>throughout the school day that went into effect last year, this resolution is about laptops and tablets that are given to students in the district. The district moved to equip each student <\/a>with their own digital devices during the pandemic that they could take home.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s still access to YouTube, some games like Roblox, Minecraft. \u2026 I’ve seen some clever kids who know that they can’t be on their phones during lunch, will be on their computers during lunch,\u201d Melvoin said.<\/p>\n What does this resolution mean for early grades?<\/p>\n