A sweeping policy to monitor and limit students’ screen time beginning in the coming academic year for the nation’s second-largest school district was being touted Wednesday for making Los Angeles a leader in efforts to place guardrails on students’ electronic device usage.
The policy was ratified on Tuesday, and follows the cell phone ban initiated by the Los Angeles Unified School District last year.
Screen time will not be allowed until students’ are in the second grade and 60-minute limits will apply from second through fifth grade. Six-hour weekly limits will apply to middle-schoolers and 10-hour limits for students in high school.
The new restrictive policy “calls for comprehensive, developmentally appropriate guardrails on instructional technology for all grade levels,” according to a district news release.
Its key provisions include eliminating use of devices for the youngest students and barring student-led use of video streaming platforms.
The resolution also mandates that all existing classroom technology contracts be reviewed and detailed in a public report.
“During COVID, student devices became a necessary lifeline, and seemingly overnight, screen time limits were shelved to ensure every child had access to the technology they needed to continue learning and stay connected with their teachers and peers,” said board member Nick Melvoin, who introduced the resolution that was co-sponsored by board members Karla Griego, Tanya Ortiz Franklin, Kelly Gonez, RocÃo Rivas and student board member Jerry Yang. “Our charge now is to recalibrate, evaluate the role of educational technology in the classroom, and balance access to that technology with the kinds of instruction and interaction we know help students thrive.”
According to the district, the nation’s second largest, the move makes it “a national leader in setting thoughtful, research-based limits on student screen use and classroom technology tools.”