You run out of things to do when you give kids a tablet, Anna Soffer, a sixth‑grade teacher in Los Angeles, says. She teaches English and history on a Chromebook that is required for quizzes, writing assignments and a range of apps—from Duolingo to Google Translate. On her commuter bus, her 8‑year‑old daughter watches YouTube and then pulls up the school’s learning platform for the next class.
For years, the promise of a laptop in every classroom was seen as the future of learning; it was framed as a method for closing the digital divide. By March 2020 the pandemic forced schools nationwide to shift to online instruction, and the National Center for Education Statistics reported that 96% of U.S. public schools were supplying devices to students who needed them. Ed‑tech boomed into a multi‑billion‑dollar industry.
Now LAUSD has taken the opposite tack. The Board’s latest resolution, adopted last month, will:
1️⃣ Remove laptops, tablets and related technology from the hands of students through second grade.
2️⃣ Set daily and weekly screen‑time caps for all grades above that.
3️⃣ Block YouTube on all school‑issued devices and ban devices at lunch and recess for elementary and middle‑school students.
4️⃣ Audit the district’s education‑technology contracts—worth an estimated $1.6 billion, according to the teachers’ union.
“These were never intended to be class crutches,” says Nick Melvoin, the boardmember who drew up the resolution. “The focus should be on meaningful learning, not endless scrolling.”
Parents have driven some of the change. In 2023, the parent‑headed group Schools Beyond Screens pressed the school board at meetings, on social media, and in private talks with administrators. Many parents, who had already negotiated cellphone bans in the hallway, wrestled with the fact that screen time was still being mandated at school.
Vicki Pavlov, a LA resident, describes her conflict: My kidnow has a school iPad. I’m trying to keep screen time at home low—no TV, no tablets after school—but the school supplies the opposite. Education is harder than it used to be because of this.”
The push for reform is not unique to LA. Ballotpedia lists 14 states that have proposed enacted laws to limit screen time in school environments. Federal health officials released an advisory last week warning that excessive screen use among youth poses emerging public‑health risks.
Other districts are following suit. In Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, parents petitioned for school‑device opt‑outs with the same rationales used in April: “We need a real face‑to‑face classroom. The evidence that ed‑tech is beneficial is thin, and the evidence that it is detrimental is growing.” Fresno Unified, California’s third‑largest district, is retracting laptops from home use in 40,000 elementary students to cut repair costs, sending students instead to in‑class only access. Simi Valley Unified has stored devices in school carts and suspended home delivery for younger learners.
On the other side of the spectrum, Arlington, Virginia, now bars iPads before first grade and limits their use, while letting 6th‑to‑12th graders still have devices. The district has also begun to explore “opt‑in” for textbooks and paper. Vicki’s 6‑th‑grader is carrying the iPad all day and “has the problem of being able to just click his way to a reward”, she says.
“In the daytime, the class is just a distraction,” writes Soffer. “I see myself battle over ‘who is the teacher who now has the computer?]
How realistic is it to turn off screens? In a world where even homework is completed online and where the learning platform is the only place to submit essays, it can feel impossible to unplug. However, the experience at LAUSD suggests that this isn’t a permanent paradigm. The district has set a trial period with a rollout in the fall.
At last March, a school‑owned laptop was not a good substitute for paper craft. The district’s new policies may be a paradigm shift: remove the cheap “crutch” and refocus instruction on face‑to‑face engagement. The question is whether parents, teachers, apprentices, and policy makers can all agree on success metrics long enough for implementation.
Back‑to‑tablets is a significant turn in education’s story. While the promise of laptops has survived a pandemic, the record indicates test scores stagnate, social outcomes vary and digital residency kills a verb that was once our comfort language. Whether the digital wave will wash a new wave of educational technology on ideas or will keep the narrative about increasingly critical real‑world learning lives on.
Frankie Patterson, a former educator, says that a successful system requires school‑administrative coalition into action.
“After COVID‑19, we should not do the same old thinking of requiring devices, because the gains are transitory. We need to adapt to a balanced use.”
For years, the promise of a laptop in every classroom was seen as the future of learning; it was framed as a method for closing the digital divide. By March 2020 the pandemic forced schools nationwide to shift to online instruction, and the National Center for Education Statistics reported that 96% of U.S. public schools were supplying devices to students who needed them. Ed‑tech boomed into a multi‑billion‑dollar industry.
Now LAUSD has taken the opposite tack. The Board’s latest resolution, adopted last month, will:
1️⃣ Remove laptops, tablets and related technology from the hands of students through second grade.
2️⃣ Set daily and weekly screen‑time caps for all grades above that.
3️⃣ Block YouTube on all school‑issued devices and ban devices at lunch and recess for elementary and middle‑school students.
4️⃣ Audit the district’s education‑technology contracts—worth an estimated $1.6 billion, according to the teachers’ union.
“These were never intended to be class crutches,” says Nick Melvoin, the boardmember who drew up the resolution. “The focus should be on meaningful learning, not endless scrolling.”
Parents have driven some of the change. In 2023, the parent‑headed group Schools Beyond Screens pressed the school board at meetings, on social media, and in private talks with administrators. Many parents, who had already negotiated cellphone bans in the hallway, wrestled with the fact that screen time was still being mandated at school.
Vicki Pavlov, a LA resident, describes her conflict: My kidnow has a school iPad. I’m trying to keep screen time at home low—no TV, no tablets after school—but the school supplies the opposite. Education is harder than it used to be because of this.”
The push for reform is not unique to LA. Ballotpedia lists 14 states that have proposed enacted laws to limit screen time in school environments. Federal health officials released an advisory last week warning that excessive screen use among youth poses emerging public‑health risks.
Other districts are following suit. In Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, parents petitioned for school‑device opt‑outs with the same rationales used in April: “We need a real face‑to‑face classroom. The evidence that ed‑tech is beneficial is thin, and the evidence that it is detrimental is growing.” Fresno Unified, California’s third‑largest district, is retracting laptops from home use in 40,000 elementary students to cut repair costs, sending students instead to in‑class only access. Simi Valley Unified has stored devices in school carts and suspended home delivery for younger learners.
On the other side of the spectrum, Arlington, Virginia, now bars iPads before first grade and limits their use, while letting 6th‑to‑12th graders still have devices. The district has also begun to explore “opt‑in” for textbooks and paper. Vicki’s 6‑th‑grader is carrying the iPad all day and “has the problem of being able to just click his way to a reward”, she says.
“In the daytime, the class is just a distraction,” writes Soffer. “I see myself battle over ‘who is the teacher who now has the computer?]
How realistic is it to turn off screens? In a world where even homework is completed online and where the learning platform is the only place to submit essays, it can feel impossible to unplug. However, the experience at LAUSD suggests that this isn’t a permanent paradigm. The district has set a trial period with a rollout in the fall.
At last March, a school‑owned laptop was not a good substitute for paper craft. The district’s new policies may be a paradigm shift: remove the cheap “crutch” and refocus instruction on face‑to‑face engagement. The question is whether parents, teachers, apprentices, and policy makers can all agree on success metrics long enough for implementation.
Back‑to‑tablets is a significant turn in education’s story. While the promise of laptops has survived a pandemic, the record indicates test scores stagnate, social outcomes vary and digital residency kills a verb that was once our comfort language. Whether the digital wave will wash a new wave of educational technology on ideas or will keep the narrative about increasingly critical real‑world learning lives on.
Frankie Patterson, a former educator, says that a successful system requires school‑administrative coalition into action.
“After COVID‑19, we should not do the same old thinking of requiring devices, because the gains are transitory. We need to adapt to a balanced use.”
