<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1NwPAU_1FHd7VxA00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1NwPAU_1FHd7VxA00" width="1680" height="876" ><figcaption>Adobe Stock</figcaption></figure>(TNS) — When Molly Christie’s kindergarten student came home with her own school-issued iPad last year, she was shocked.As a family who limits screen time for their children, she never expected her young child to be given a personal device in kindergarten, let alone that one would come home with her every day.But her concerns didn’t end there.She later learned some classes in the Park Hill School District offer screen time as rewards for good behavior, and that parents don’t know how much time students spend on devices during class, or even what those devices are used for day-to-day — a question parents say they have previously received no solid answer to.“That was kind of the beginning,” Christie said.In the year since, Christie has also learned she isn’t alone in her concerns.Now, just several months after a group of concerned parents helped push the Shawnee Mission School District to change its classroom technology practices, a new group up north is tackling the same mission.Parents of current and future Park Hill students, like Christie, attended a Park Hill Board of Education meeting last week in response to what they believe is a concerning overuse of technology inside classrooms — citing growing dependencies on devices, lack of fine motor skills and decreasing social skills.“We are not anti-technology, but we are very pro intentional, age appropriate use of technology,” Christie said.Leaders of the new Park Hill chapter of Schools Beyond Screens, a national coalition of parents advocating for guidelines around educational technology, are hoping to invoke technology reform within the district, create policies they feel will better support learning and find a balance between digital and analog assignments.And if practices within the district aren’t changed, some parents said they may leave Park Hill entirely.“Absolutely I think if things do not change, then I would not feel comfortable sending my kids into a learning environment that I do not believe provides the best outcomes,” Taylor Rees, who helped organize the Park Hill Schools Beyond Screens chapter, told The Star.Current practices and national changesAt Park Hill, students are given an assigned device starting in kindergarten. It can be used throughout the school day and is taken home overnight. Kindergarten and first grade students receive iPads, while students in second grade and up are given laptops. Students are required to complete a quiz or course about digital safety before they’re allowed to take a device home, according to Kelly Wachel, Park Hill’s chief communications officer.These devices are typically used for all assessments throughout the school year and can be used for various assignments or activities, like math games or lessons on 3D shapes, each day.However, specific daily usage can vary based on each classroom.“It varies by grade level, it varies by course, it varies by content,” Wachel told The Star. “We do some learning online, but we are also incorporating lots of pencil and paper, lots of instruction without technology, and I think right now the question is how do we find the right balance?”In an effort to find that balance, the district formed a new instructional technology task force in the spring focused on evaluating technology practices. It consists of a variety of people, including administrators, teachers, students and parents.“We think it’s really important that we have technology experts involved in the conversation, parents involved, kids involved, our teachers, instructors, directors involved,” Wachel said. “It takes everyone in the conversation to provide perspective to find the right solution for Park Hill.”But Park Hill isn’t alone in its mission to evaluate technology use in classrooms.In response to growing screen time concerns nationwide, several of the country’s largest school districts have cut back on educational technology use, including New York City Public Schools and the Los Angeles Unified School District.In LA, the district implemented screen time limits for elementary students this school year, with those in kindergarten and first grade having no screen time at all. Software was also downloaded to school-issued tablets or computers to keep track of the amount of screen time students have per week.And, in New York City, the nation’s largest school district recently rolled out a new policy restricting screen time for elementary and middle school students, along with the use of artificial intelligence.And, more locally, Shawnee Mission’s Schools Beyond Screens group played a crucial role in the district taking steps to cut back on technology use in classrooms in July. The district’s board of education voted this summer to bring in iPad carts to store devices away from students’ desks when students aren’t using them and increased disciplinary consequences for students using personal devices, such as cellphones, inappropriately during class.Additionally, Missouri lawmakers passed a bill last year requiring public schools to ban cellphone use during the school day.A packed board meetingPark Hill’s boardroom was packed last Thursday as parents with the Schools Beyond Screens group voiced their concerns and listened while the district’s new taskforce provided an update on its work so far.At the meeting, parents, including Rees and Christie, asked for change and transparency, urging board members to consider implementing practices that would allow parents to see how much screen time their children have in school each week.“I can’t tell you how much time my kids spend on devices, what apps they have access to or what restrictions exist, and it’s not for a lack of trying,” said Andrew Potter, the parent of a Park Hill kindergartener. “And I’m not alone. I have had so many conversations with friends and parents who share the same frustrations.”Potter also requested the district create a public list of every app and platform authorized for elementary classrooms, and what data each collects on users. Additionally, he asked for a cap on non-instructional device use for students to ensure screen time doesn’t vary from teacher-to-teacher like it does now.Meanwhile, the new instructional technology task force met for the first time at the start of the month to begin analyzing current practices, along with gathering research and feedback. Throughout the next few months, the team comprised of various stakeholders will review survey results, discuss research findings and put together final recommendations for the board by January, leaders said at the Thursday night meeting.“Our charge is really about finding the right balance for our kids, and we want to ensure that our digital tools are used in ways that are healthy, developmentally appropriate, but also educationally sound,” said Melissa Hensley, executive director of elementary education. “Technology should be the thing that supports our core instruction. It shouldn’t be something separate from our core instruction.”During the meeting, Board Vice President Daryl Terwilleger reminded community members the task force is undertaking a months-long process, and a proper decision will take time to make.“I do want to stress there’s four months of work that needs to happen here,” he said. “So, it would be irresponsible for the board to just lob something out there and approve it. We need to do the work and do this the right way to figure out what’s the best practices.”Surveys about electronic devices in classroomsThe new Park Hill chapter of Schools Beyond Screens was formed earlier this summer after Rees and Christie teamed up to tackle a common goal, advocating for fewer screens in classrooms.Together, they followed in the footsteps of Shawnee Mission’s Schools Beyond Screens group and formed their own chapter of the Los Angeles-based organization, which has over 220 chapters nationwide.From there, they began talking to more parents, eventually growing to more than 130 members in just seven weeks.Over the summer, Rees and Christie conducted their own research, reading countless peer-reviewed articles and exploring how other districts utilize technology in classrooms. But most importantly, they set out to discover how their fellow parents feel about Park Hill’s practices.So, they sent out a survey shared with hundreds of Park Hill parents of students in varying grades at multiple schools, which garnered 255 responses, showing that 91.5% of respondents support daily limits for one-on-one device use in elementary school.Additionally, 90% of respondents said students should not receive an individually-assigned device before second grade, while 91% want daily device-use reports to see how much screen time children have at school.An EducationWeek Research Center study conducted earlier this year found that a majority of a nationally representative sample of 753 teachers, principals and district leaders use technology between one and four hours each day.Around 35% of elementary teachers who responded to the EducationWeek survey reported using instructional technology between one and two hours each day, while 33% said they utilize it less than an hour per day. Middle school teachers reported using the highest rates of tech, with 38% saying they use it 3–4 hours a day, and 20% claiming to use it all day. A majority of high school teachers said they use it 3–4 hours a day, as well.The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reported last year that high amounts of screen time in children can cause sleep, weight and mood problems, along with causing children to read less books, spend less time outside and socialize less. However, the report was not specific to educational technology use.Based on the survey shared by Schools Beyond Screens, approximately 1 in 3 respondents said they have considered changing, or already have changed, schools due to the district’s use of educational technology.“We have considered enrolling into a private school that does low technology because it aligns more with our values of how we want to raise our children and how they should be educated,” one respondent said.Concerns over child development, too much accessIn the survey, parents expressed concerns for the development of their children’s fine motor skills and penmanship, while others focused on worries regarding access to AI and apps like YouTube. Some noted they’ve noticed a decline in their child’s social skills, and others said their student struggles to read, write and spell without a device.“I believe more screen time in classrooms has greatly impacted my children’s learning. Both children struggle with reading, writing, and spelling as well as both exhibit a low level of patience with concepts they don’t understand immediately or have to work at,” a parent of students in middle and high school said.A lot of parents also said they wish devices stayed at school overnight, rather than students bringing them home. And many survey responses focused on a desire for more transparency from the school district, hoping for more insight into exactly how often devices are used in their child’s classrooms and for what.“As a screen-free family, I’m terrified of my kid going into kindergarten,” wrote a parent of a kindergarten student at English Landing Elementary.“Technology skills are a must in this world, but just like cell phones, can be delayed,” added another parent of pre-kindergarten and third grade students.“The laptops should go back on a cart to be used as resources, not crutches,” said one parent.“Just because it is available, doesn’t make it better for our students,” wrote another.Other parents want technology in classroomsMeanwhile, other survey respondents weren’t concerned about technology in classrooms.“Our children have excelled in the PHSD and we have had zero issues with the way they have received instruction,” a parent of a senior at Park Hill High School said. “They have both absorbed so much information and part of that is from being able to access the collective knowledge of the world with just the touch of a button.”Another parent voiced concerns about how a reduction in technology use could impact high-performing students, like their own, who receive more advanced work through their devices.“I am worried that if we put restrictions on how much time they can be on a screen, it will end up limiting our advanced students from receiving more challenging work,” they wrote. “I communicate with my children and I’m in the schools often and have never seen technology used in a frivolous way in our schools.”And a parent of two children in the district and a Park Hill teacher said the district completes regular research and reviews of technology and non-technology resources.“I can attest to the fact that the district is diligent about the selection, rollout, and implementation of technology including in-depth research,” they wrote.While the Schools Beyond Screens group believes a decrease in technology use could improve students’ education, overall, they hope to find a better balance between digital assignments and those done with pencil and paper — all while keeping what’s best for students and teachers in mind, Rees said.“I trust the teacher,” Rees said. “I trust the teacher in their humanness and their connection and their ability to engage with the students so much more than I’ll ever trust the iPad to be able to do that, and that’s why I feel so strongly.”© 2026 The Kansas City Star. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.</div></body>

Block Source: Government Technology

Misinformation

Clickbait

Old or repetitive news

Explicit content

Location not relevant

(TNS) — When Molly Christie’s kindergarten student came home with her own school-issued iPad last year, she was shocked. As a family who limits screen time for their children, she never expected her young child to be given a personal device in kindergarten, let alone that one would come home with her every day.

Missouri Schools Examining Student Tech Use in Classrooms

NewsBreak

(TNS) — When Molly Christie’s kindergarten student came home with her own school-issued iPad last year, she was shocked. As a family who limits screen time

Missouri Schools Examining Student Tech Use in Classrooms

Comments