One of the nation’s largest school districts bans screens for children before 2nd grade
The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest school district in the nation, has banned screens for children before they reach second grade.
Under the new policy approved by the school board on Tuesday, there will be no screen time in classrooms from preschool through first grade, and screens in higher grades will be limited.
Students in second and third grade will be allowed 20 minutes of daily screen time. Fourth and fifth-grade students will be limited to 30 minutes of daily screen time.
Middle and high school students will be allotted more screen time. Grades six through eight will be allowed six hours of screen time per week, and grades nine through 12 will be allowed 10 hours a week.
One advocate hopes the new policy will become a “gold standard” for classrooms across the country.
“This is a pretty historic, new change that is going to ripple through the state and country,” Anya Meskin, the deputy director for Schools Beyond Screens, told the Los Angeles Times.
“We haven’t seen a single district — especially a district of this size — do a comprehensive overhaul of their entire approach to technology. We think this is going to become a gold standard.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics doesn’t set specific screen time limits, but rather encourages parents to consider the quality of digital consumption, not just the quantity.
In a policy statement from January, the academy warned that “heavier noneducational and solo screen media use” among children five years and younger is linked to “delays in language, cognitive, social-emotional, executive functioning, and fine motor development, as well as poorer sleep and less reading and pretend play.”
In August 2024, Ashley Dickson and her husband moved from Boston so that their boys could attend a private school in Virginia that discouraged screen time in class and at home.
“I just felt really drawn to exploring something that would preserve childhood, and this seemed like a good fit,” she told The Independent’s Rhian Lubin earlier this month. “The low-tech environment really is a big part of it.”
Under the new policy for Los Angeles schools, students will also no longer be given a computer to take home.
There were some families who opposed the new policy, noting the need for students with limited access to technology to still learn how to use computers.
“Sometimes a policy that has the intention of helping maybe has consequences that can harm children, especially for students in low-income families,” one parent said, per the Los Angeles Times.
