Amber Rhodes first grew concerned with students’ use of technology as an eighth grade teacher as she witnessed the impact increased use of cellphones and laptops had on her students in Chesterfield County.
But when her own 6-year-old son came home from school and told her about the online games he and his classmates had gained access to, she knew something had to change.
Troy Farmer was equally alarmed when his 8-year-old son came home from his public elementary school in Richmond talking about the Spiderman cartoons he’d watched and the Minecraft accomplishments made that day.
“We know that learning that happens on screens is not as effective as the learning that happens — the analog learning — on paper and pencil. We know that this type of learning [builds] these neural pathways and longer-term learning, deeper learning,” Farmer said, citing research that shows students retain more when reading on paper than on screens. He was one of nearly two dozen parents who spoke about the issue during a Virginia Board of Education meeting on Thursday.
“Now that we have this knowledge that this isn’t what’s best for our kids, we need to act on it.”
Farmer and Rhodes are among the wave of parents across the state raising concerns about the use of technology, or “screen time,” in schools and calling for policymakers and legislators to roll back and even regulate how devices are used in schools.
Virginia schools already ban cellphones from “bell-to-bell” under state law, but in recent decades more activities happen on laptops or tablets, often issued to students by the school division.
Technology use was already increasing before the COVID-19 pandemic, but when school closures forced educators to find alternatives, it ramped up.
Rhodes recalls developing lessons for a virtual environment during the pandemic as one of her division’s curriculum leads, but in the years since, even as students returned to school for in-person learning, many of those online lessons still take place.
There’s also mounting evidence that excessive screen time can harm young children and negatively affect learning. The impact that social media can have on anxiety and depression and on how students develop social and emotional skills — and even the impact technology use has on attention spans — were among the reasons cited by proponents of the state’s cellphone ban.
But some parents are saying that’s not enough. Now, they’re pushing for school divisions and the state to set limits, or even end, all screen time in schools.
Setting screen-time limits
Some Virginia school divisions are already instituting their own policies around screen time amid growing pushpack from families.
Last year, lawmakers passed SB 568, which added “screen time” to a list of potential hazards, such as drugs and alcohol, that public schools must warn students about. The state allows school boards to adopt individual policies around technology use.
Last spring, Rhodes launched the Central Virginia chapter of The Balance Project, a national nonprofit aimed at raising awareness about intentional technology use.
She also gathered more than 2,700 signatures on petitions requesting Chesterfield and Henrico county schools to adopt screen-time policies that include eliminating digital devices in grades pre-K through second, setting screen-time limits and cutting back on programs that give a device to each student.
Since then, Henrico County Public Schools — which was one of the first school divisions in the nation to give a laptop to every high school student more than two decades ago — has introduced new “Digital Wellness Guidance.”
The guidance, announced at the start of the school year, prohibits digital homework for elementary schoolers, bans access to YouTube on school-issued devices and sets daily technology-use limits — up to 90 minutes for students in grades three through five, for example.
Roanoke County Public Schools’ new superintendent, Jamie Soltis, has tasked his instructional department to audit the division’s laptop program and develop a plan to limit screen time, especially in early grades.
“I don’t necessarily believe kids [in kindergarten through second grade] should be on the laptop hardly at all. I think the more we can give kids the time to interact face-to-face, the better off they’re going to be in the long run,” Soltis said in an interview this summer. “But we do have to balance that with teaching them computer skills and things they need to be successful because those are tools they’re going to use.”
Emily Harrison, a Roanoke-area mom and member of Virginia’s Reclaiming Childhood Task Force, says families — and schools — deserve something more concrete.
“Across the state, we’re all kind of piecemeal advocating for these things. … We want to be really clear and consistent as the adults in these kids’ lives to say, like, ‘Hey, this isn’t for school time,’” she told Cardinal News.
Advocates hope to ‘change the norm’
Harrison is advocating for the state to not only institute screen-time limits, but also to give students the option to take annual assessments — known as Standards of Learning, or SOL, tests — with paper and pencil.
“One of the big things that I consistently hear as an advocate is that because testing is mandated to happen online, that creates kind of a norm that these devices are within the classroom,” she said.
Starting in third grade, all Virginia students take annual tests in language arts and math, with other subjects added as they move up in grades. Current Virginia Education Department policy only allows tests to be given in a paper format if a student has been granted a special accommodation, such as through an individualized education program or a medical exemption.
“So if we can change what that norm is, and not have moments where you must use these devices, then we can have better conversations about when it’s developmentally appropriate to use devices in the classroom,” Harrison said.
The state is looking to replace its student testing system. In July it issued a request for proposals for a new vendor to develop and administer the annual SOL tests, so Harrison thinks it’s the perfect time for state officials to rethink the format of student tests and to begin allowing schools to offer paper-and-pencil alternatives.
Both Harrison and Rhodes also hope to see state legislators join the conversation.
Harrison has previously worked with lawmakers on legislation that would restrict the use of social media in schools at all times, require app scores to verify ages and safeguard children from artificial intelligence chatbots.
Many of the parents who spoke at Thursday’s meeting expressed concerns that some educators are unable to prevent children from accessing social media sites and other non-educational sites and games on school-issued devices.
Even when it comes to software or platforms that are considered educational, parents like Rhodes and Farmer want schools to be more intentional and question the efficacy of platforms like Lexia, a widely used online literacy program that some schools have students use for dedicated time daily.
The program has been approved by the state to provide supplemental instruction and to be used as an intervention tool, and is a key component of the state’s “All In VA” initiative.
“Where is the data that shows that this has been proven to show gains in the classroom? I think there’s a lot that when I was in the classroom, that was pushed on me as a teacher,” Rhodes said.
IXL, a state-approved online math program, was one of them, she said.
“I was told that I should be using it during my after-school tutoring with students and I pushed back on that, saying, like, I am a teacher and I’m one-on-one with these students, and I’m going to use that time to work with them one-on-one. I’m not going to put them on a laptop.”
Many educators and advocates agree that technology should be used intentionally. But there’s less consensus about the age at which they believe screen time is developmentally appropriate.
The Virginia Association of Elementary School Principals recently released a position paper on technology use in elementary schools, supporting restrictions on student access to social media and non-instructional content, and saying that pre-K should be “primarily device-free.”
But the group maintained that “educators should retain the professional discretion to use carefully selected digital resources” when “used in moderation.” It also expressed concerns with eliminating programs that give devices to all students in grades two through five, citing in part the “operational reality” of computer-based statewide assessments and the need to prepare students for them when developing statewide technology recommendations.
After the nearly 30 speakers ended their public comments Thursday, mostly related to screen time, state education board member Ida McPherson asked if Superintendent Jenna Conway’s administration planned to bring policies or information on technology in schools before the board in the near future.
Board member Aaliyah Maxwell expressed appreciation for the “consistency in messaging.”
“There are some very specific issues where our constituents are wanting us to just pay particular attention — that piece on high-quality instructional materials and that piece on digital alignment, I think that needs and warrants further conversation.”
Keena McAvoy, a Fairfax mom and co-founder of DMV Unplugged, a group advocating for less screen time, said she hopes legislation will be introduced that specifically limits programs that give devices to every child and addresses education technology contracts.
“We hope that legislation will be brought forward that speaks very specifically to educational technology and to what those ed tech contracts look like and what those products that are brought into school have to look like,” she told Cardinal News. “We are seeing a momentum change.”
