The Los Angeles Unified School District will ban screens for students below second grade in response to community-wide pushback against tech use.
Starting in August, the new policy will restrict preschool- through first-grade-aged students from accessing screens while also limiting usage for older students, according to the Los Angeles Times. Here are the details, according to the news outlet:
- 2nd/3rd grade: Limited to 20 minutes of screen time (including homework)
- 4th/5th grade: Limited to 30 minutes (starting in November)
- Middle school: One hour of screen time spread throughout the week in each class (6 hours total per week)
- High school: 1.5 hours (can’t exceed 10 hours per week)
Students will also no longer be given school-issued computers to take home.
“It’s an incredibly robust and groundbreaking document,” board member Nick Melvoin, who introduced the initial resolution earlier this year, told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s going to be the basis for reform throughout the country if not the world.”
The pushback against edtech
LAUSD’s decision comes at a time when educators are reevaluating technology’s role in the classroom.
Roughly 88% of U.S. public schools issue devices to students, according to a 2025 survey from the National Center for Education Statistics. Now, both sides of the political aisle agree that excessive screen time is problematic.
Last month, the president of the nation’s largest teachers union, Randi Weingarten, called for bans on:
- Screens in pre-K through second grade
- Student-facing AI in elementary school
- “Social companion” chatbots that simulate human relationships for kids under 16.
“We are at a crossroads that will define the future of work and society,” said Weingarten, who also released a plan for teachers to refocus on hands-on learning and student well-being. “Without proper oversight and strong guardrails, there will be real dangers to our safety, privacy, climate and the very fabric of society.”
Just before Weingarten’s call-to-action, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a report labeling screen addiction a “public health concern,” often leading to mental, physical and developmental challenges. The report noted that many children are exposed to screens before their first birthday. By adolescence, some children spend more hours on their devices than they do sleeping or attending school.
“While screen use can have some benefits, the evidence of a range of risks to children’s overall mental and physical health is mounting,” the report reads. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy called for immediate intervention, arguing that public health cannot wait for exhaustive research.
Even the nation’s leading edtech entrepreneurs agree that regulating screen time is “common sense.” In an interview with District Administration earlier this year, Khan Academy founder and CEO Sal Khan argued that screen time restrictions should expand to include social media.
“In my own house, we’ve banned Instagram for our kids, and they’re like, ‘Oh, but the robotics team requires us to use Instagram,’” Khan said. “I would even put pressure on clubs, because there are other mechanisms they can use that might not be quite as sexy as Instagram, but I would definitely take a hard look at that kind of stuff.”
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