But changes are coming to how those devices are used.
Canon-McMillan School District next year will eliminate the use of Chromebooks for students from kindergarten through second grade.
And a group of parents from Pennsylvania is advocating for statewide changes that would require students to put some of those computers away to limit the amount of screen time kids have in schools.
“We are not anti-tech at all. … We 100 percent believe that it is important for students to learn how to use technology, especially as technology is ever changing,” said Kristen Beddard of Sewickley, co-lead of PA Unplugged, a group founded in 2025 to advocate for distraction-free schools. “You can learn really good tech skills, but that is very different from learning through the technology all the time.”
Specifically, PA Unplugged says it would like to see constant student access to their own laptops and tablets eliminated, especially in elementary schools. Schools should instead return to the cart method, where students must check out devices with teacher approval, the group says.
The discussion comes months after advocates rallied for cellphones to be locked away during the school day, an ongoing debate among lawmakers considering a statewide ban on phones.
Across Pennsylvania, 77 percent of nearly 1,470 respondents to a PA Unplugged survey said there’s too much screen time in schools, 81 percent reported concerns about how school-issued devices are used, and 56 percent said their child’s schools communicate poorly about screen time and tech use.
Those results mirror growing concerns nationally over school technology.
The Los Angeles Unified School District last month said a screen-time policy must now be created for each grade and subject; students in first grade and younger are prohibited from using the devices.
Utah’s governor last month signed a law allowing parents to see how much time their child spends on a school device.
And elsewhere in Pennsylvania, hundreds of Lower Merion parents recently called for a more intentional use of one-to-one laptops in the Montgomery County district.
The pushback comes as social media fills up with influencers offering tips to help limit skyrocketing personal screen times. A jury this year held Meta and YouTube liable for claims their platforms are addictive and have harmed children, The New York Times reported.
Beddard said awareness is rising over the possible dangers of tech use.
Megan Tierney, a behavioral health supervisor at The Chill Project at Allegheny Health Network, said excessive technology use in elementary school can cause kids to miss out on creative experiences, imaginative play and peer interactions.
At the middle school level, Tierney said, she’s heard from parents concerned about their children who have mood changes, are more prone to get into arguments or who shut down if they don’t have their devices.
For PA Unplugged, top concerns include: technology bypassing students' learning foundational skills such as writing and critical thinking; elementary kids becoming trained to play on their tablets after finishing assignments rather than completing something else, such as a worksheet; the use of distracting apps and the gamification of learning that can cause kids to become addicted to technology; and access to inappropriate content.
Yet, some experts believe the presence of tech in the classrooms might not be fully understood.
Joseph South, chief innovation officer at ISTE+ASCD, an education technology-based nonprofit in Virginia, said many parents have a view of technology based on the pandemic rather than what it looks like today.
He pointed to a school in Tennessee that uses technology to access a local university’s scanning electron microscope for science classes.
“The main reason that the pushback is growing is there’s a lumping together of all technologies in the minds of parents,” South said. “And so they’re like, ‘We’ve got to get all technology out of school because it’s all distracting,’ which I think is an overcorrection.”
When implemented correctly, South said, technology can help teachers differentiate instruction to better adjust to how students individually learn, while helping students work on areas they’re struggling with and freeing up time for teachers to work one-on-one with others.
He said officials should conduct audits to ensure students are participating in high-quality screen time.
“Some of that technology is really helping [students] to engage in school,” South said. “I’m just hoping we can have a more nuanced conversation than we’re having.”
SHIFTS IN LOCAL DISTRICTS
At Canon-McMillan, a Washington County district of 5,500 students, kindergartners often start the school year with deficits in fine motor and social skills because of the emphasis on using screens at a young age, Superintendent Greg Taranto told the Post-Gazette this week.
Now, the district is eliminating laptop use for younger students, returning the focus to paper-and-pencil assignments and student-teacher interactions. The district hopes to have kids better learn by taking physical notes rather than passively scrolling on a screen.
“Let's go all in and do what's best for kids,” Taranto said. “Especially K through second graders, that brain development stage is so critical.”
The decision is partly a passion project for Taranto, who has read research and books suggesting student achievement has dropped across the board since the implementation of one-to-one devices.
His focus — a yearslong effort as he delved into how to keep students safe on the Internet and the impacts of social media on kids — has led to initiatives districtwide recently to limit screen time in all grades.
To do that, Canon-McMillan purchases textbooks and instructional materials rather than using digital versions. And they prioritize integrating technology “thoughtfully and intentionally” rather than for convenience, according to a letter sent to district parents last week.
That doesn’t mean all technology is limited. K-8 students still use Chromebooks throughout the school day, but they do not take them home. High schoolers have one-to-one devices.
Computers will remain in the higher grades — Taranto acknowledged that students need to know how to use technology. The district also offers classes related to coding and artificial intelligence.
But officials plan to revisit educational technology programs used in grades K-6, which are designed to gamify learning with quick bursts of information and token digital rewards.
“We are reducing it and swinging the pendulum back to center,” Taranto said. “That's all. ... That doesn't mean eliminate it.”
For most of the school day, students in the Peters Township School District listen as their teachers walk them through lessons on math, English and history.
Only when teachers turn to small group instruction or other activities do students open up their computers or tablets to participate in assignments aimed at reinforcing skills they learned in the traditional classroom setting. In all, that amounts to nearly 35 minutes of screen time per day, said Michael Fisher, the district’s assistant superintendent.
“They're very intentional about using it,” Fisher said of teachers. “They never put a device in front of a kid if there isn’t an end result or a goal outcome.”
So far, parents in the Washington County district of 4,000 students are satisfied with the use of laptops and tablets in their schools.
A survey conducted earlier this year asked parents if they were in favor of eliminating one-to-one devices. Of the 2,200 students represented in the survey, nearly 81 percent at the high school level did not want to eliminate one-to-one, 76 percent at the middle school, 73 percent at McMurray elementary, 66 percent at Pleasant Valley elementary, and 58 percent at Bower Hill elementary.
The majority of respondents said the amount of time students spend on devices for instructional purposes is just right.
Those results, district spokesperson Shelly Belcher said, reinforced the district’s practices.
She pointed to a past board meeting during which teachers discussed their use of technology in the classroom. One educator, Belcher said, stressed that, “It's not a treat for the kids. It's an educational tool, and they're really finding value in some of the programs that we have.”
Still, as a result of those discussions, the district next school year will require kindergarten and first grade students to leave devices at school. Parents, Belcher said, were concerned over how devices were being used at home outside of doing homework.
They also plan to increase education for parents on how to limit what a child sees while using devices, as well as the amount of time a child spends using technology.
THE WIDER EFFORTS
PA Unplugged officials are now turning their efforts to Harrisburg.
During a Zoom meeting last month, 30 parents, school directors and former teachers met to create a position statement, pushing for a more intentional use of technology within school buildings.
That’s been the mission for Katie Talarico, the parent of an Upper St. Clair junior and district graduate, since 2015, when her then-11-year-old was handed an iPad.
“I became really alarmed,” Talarico said after researching the possible impacts.
She quickly began reaching out to teachers and parents with her concerns, and at one point she wrote a white paper on the topic to better detail her position.
She participated in community events to raise awareness around education technology and developed toolkits for parents wanting to advocate for similar changes.
Her efforts were stymied by the pandemic, but she’s since restarted the push and said she’s happy to see the nationwide discussions.
“The time is here to act because so many more people are involved,” Talarico said. “And I think that parents, teachers, pediatric providers, anyone that works with or cares for kids has a duty of care at this point to really bring the focus back to what kids need for healthy development and to learn well.”
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