Parents organise screen rollback

Parents pushing to scale back school-issued screens are no longer arguing only about eye strain or social media. In Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, Los Angeles and San Francisco, they are organizing around how Chromebooks and iPads shape ordinary classroom instruction, homework and student attention. Districts are responding unevenly: some are resisting parental opt-outs, while Los Angeles Unified has already drafted grade-by-grade limits. In Spain, Mijas has also expanded a local campaign against early screen exposure, adding to the sense that the backlash is widening across places with very different school systems. ### Why are parents treating classroom screens as a school issue, not just a home issue? On May 14, the Associated Press reported from Ardmore, Pennsylvania, that students in Lower Merion start with iPads in kindergarten, move to Chromebooks in second grade and receive MacBooks in eighth grade. One student, Aliyah Pack, told AP that distraction on a school laptop had become routine, and her mother said the district would not take the device away when she asked. (usnews.com) In Lower Merion, more than 600 people signed a petition to preserve parents’ ability to opt children out of digital devices during the school day, according to AP. At a May 11 school board meeting, more than 100 people showed up, many wearing “Screens Down, Pencils Up” buttons, and parent Sara Sullivan said, “Teaching how to use technology is not the same thing as using technology to teach everything else.” (usnews.com) ### What are parents in California asking districts to change? In Los Angeles, Schools Beyond Screens has spent months pressing the district to reduce classroom device use, especially in younger grades, according to EdSource. The group said this week that the district’s draft policy was shaped by “months of advocacy from families and educators across Los Angeles.” (usnews.com) The San Francisco Standard reported on May 19 that parents in Los Angeles and San Francisco are organizing explicitly to roll screens back in schools. Search results for the article describe it as a “parent army” fighting classroom Chromebook use, though the accessible snippet does not provide further detail on named San Francisco school actions. That suggests the organizing has moved beyond single-district complaints into a broader networked campaign, though that broader framing is an inference from the spread of local groups and coverage. (edsource.org) ### How are districts pushing back? Lower Merion school board member Anna Shurak told the May 11 meeting that “There is not an option for us to not have technology in schools,” according to AP. The district was discussing updates to its technology policies, including repealing a policy that allows opt-outs, and board members said they were considering responses to parent concerns but not broad device exemptions. (sfstandard.com) District resistance is tied to how deeply devices are embedded in instruction. AP reported that Lower Merion officials said it was not feasible to let hundreds of students opt out of technology that is essential to the curriculum. That is the core conflict in many of these fights: parents are asking for choice, while districts say classroom systems, assignments and assessments now assume universal device use. (usnews.com) ### Why is Los Angeles getting so much attention? On April 21, Los Angeles Unified voted unanimously to curb classroom screen time and ordered staff to bring back a policy by June, EdSource reported. The proposal discussed on May 19 would set a limit of zero minutes per day for early education through first grade, zero to 20 minutes for second and third grade, and zero to 30 minutes for fourth and fifth grade, with higher recommended ranges for older students. (usnews.com) The May 19 draft would also change the default to avoid one-to-one take-home devices unless parents opt children in, and it would shift personalized learning for kindergartners and first graders away from i-Ready and back to teachers, EdSource said. Exceptions would be made for students with disabilities and for bilingual or multilingual learners who need translation support. (edsource.org) ### Is this still mainly a health argument? In Mijas, Spain, the town hall said on May 19 it had expanded its “Little Ones Without Screens” campaign into municipal nurseries to raise awareness about the effects of screen exposure on babies and young children. That campaign is framed more directly around early-childhood exposure, showing that health concerns still matter in this debate. (edsource.org) In U.S. school fights, though, parents are increasingly tying screens to attention, distraction and classroom control. AP’s Lower Merion reporting centered on students using school laptops during class and parents arguing that devices now dominate instruction rather than supplement it. In Los Angeles, board member Nick Melvoin said in April that screens “can be a barrier to instruction,” framing the issue in classroom terms as much as developmental ones. (euroweeklynews.com) ### What happens next? In June, Los Angeles Unified is expected to consider a final screen-time policy for the 2026-27 school year, according to EdSource and NBC News search results. In Lower Merion, the school board is already reviewing technology policies, including whether to repeal the opt-out provision that parents are trying to preserve. (edsource.org) (usnews.com)