The Los Angeles Unified School District’s board voted Tuesday to restrict students’ use of laptops and tablets in class and encourage pen-and-paper assignments instead, making it the first major American school system to do so.
The sweeping resolution, which passed 6-0 with one recusal, requires the district to create a screen time policy for each grade and subject, prohibit students in first grade and younger from using devices, clarify the process for parents to opt their child out of using technology at school, and audit its education technology contracts.
“We have responsibility as one of the largest districts to draw a line in the sand when it comes to this recalibration and start the conversation,” Nick Melvoin, the board member in charge of drafting the resolution, said in an interview ahead of the vote.
The vote follows months of pressure from parents who started a group called Schools Beyond Screens, speaking at board meetings, on social media, at district listening sessions, and in private meetings with administrators and board members about problems their children faced when required to use school-issued Chromebooks and iPads.
Families previously told NBC News that their children’s grades had dropped as they became distracted playing video games in class, watching YouTube, and scrolling social media and internet forums. Parents and teachers also complained that some middle schools reserved one day a week for students to complete online math and reading quizzes, which disrupted unrelated classes such as gym, music and science.
“This is an historic reform that we hope will trickle down to the rest of the country very, very quickly,” said Anya Meksin, a mother of two and a deputy director of Schools Beyond Screens, which she said has 2,000 members locally. “We see this as a big cultural shift into how schools approach technology.”
The resolution requires the district to present a detailed screen time policy to the school board in June, to take effect in the 2026-2027 school year. The policy must largely restrict elementary and middle school students from using devices during lunch and recess, and it must prohibit students from seeking out YouTube videos on their own, according to the resolution.
Backlash against tech in classrooms
- In Los Angeles, a growing contingent of parents say school-mandated iPads are leading to behavior problems.
- Internal documents reveal Google’s work in schools aims to create a “pipeline of future users.”
- Parents are forming a loose network teaching one another how to opt their children out of school-issued Chromebooks and iPads.
- Lawmakers in 16 states proposed restrictions on classroom technology this year, including screen time limits.
The resolution is a remarkable change in direction for the nation’s second-largest school district following several years of investment in education technology, or ed tech, which was championed by Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. Carvalho was placed on leave in February after the FBI searched his Los Angeles home and office, reportedly in connection with a failed technology company that the district paid $3 million to develop a nonfunctional AI chatbot. Through an attorney, Carvalho has denied wrongdoing, and he has not been charged with a crime.
During board meetings last fall, following parent complaints about excessive screen time in schools, Carvalho dismissed their concerns as “newly informed privilege” and framed providing devices to students as a matter of equity. “Do we have a specific to digital tool addiction in America? Yes we do — schools are not the reason, not even close,” he said at a September board meeting. “Parental responsibility is very much a part of this equation.”
The district defended Chromebook and iPad use in the classroom in a statement this week that said the devices improve education and the administration guides “schools to focus on how technology meaningfully supports learning rather than simply how long it is used.”
“Providing universal access to devices is a core equity strategy, helping eliminate disparities tied to income, geography, ability and family resources so that all students can participate in modern learning,” the district’s statement continued.
At Tuesday’s board meeting, acting Superintendent Andres Chait spoke positively about the resolution, as four dozen parents filled the room adorned with Schools Beyond Screens stickers and small signs reading “Teachers Over Tech” and “Relationships = Results.” The parents erupted into applause once the vote was tallied.
A grassroots movement of parents emerged nationwide over the past several months in the wake of cellphone bans in schools to demand that classrooms become less reliant on technology. Organized local coalitions have formed across the country calling on school districts to scale back policies to provide every student their own laptop or tablet, which are prevalent in the vast majority of schools. Some parents have demanded to opt their children out of using devices at all for classwork, and an NBC News analysis found legislation proposed in 16 states this year that called for some sort of restriction on screen time or internet use in schools.
A handful of smaller school districts — including in Beverly Hills; Bend, Oregon; and Burke County, North Carolina — have enacted similar policies pushing a return to analog assignments in the classroom, but Los Angeles is the first of its size and in a major city to take on this approach amid parent backlash to screen time.
Melvoin and Tanya Ortiz Franklin, a board member co-sponsoring the resolution, each said they decided to introduce it following meetings with members of the Schools Beyond Screens parent coalition and after seeing kindergarten classrooms full of children with their heads buried in iPads and high schools populated by teenagers bending over Chromebooks.
“Let us model for our young people that adults are also learning, and we’re adjusting the rules and regulations that help their learning,” Ortiz Franklin said in an interview.
Los Angeles Unified’s administration will review the policy annually and survey students, parents and staff on it. And the district will have to figure out a way to track how long students spend on devices and specific software, then share regular reports with parents.
