Supporting a Balanced Approach to technology in Schools

Dear Administration & BOE Leadership,

The undersigned parents in the district support technology's role in education, but also believe the "technology pendulum" in schools has swung too far. As you know and have acknowledged, new and growing research from institutions like the American Academy of Pediatrics, MIT, Harvard, and UNESCO shows that excessive screen use is affecting children's focus, mental health, and academic development in ways that demand attention.

Over the past 18 months, schools across the nation and the globe, including ours, have been taking steps to ensure a more balanced approach to technology in classrooms. And as you know, in April 2026, the 2nd largest district in the country, LAUSD, unanimously passed a resolution to reduce and limit screen use in classrooms, reflecting a growing consensus that the current approach must shift. 

The landmark screen time resolution passed by LAUSD in April 2026 cites research linking excessive screen time to anxiety, depression, reduced attention, and lower academic achievement — particularly among younger students. It also noted that platforms like YouTube are designed to maximize engagement in ways that harm youth mental health, as confirmed by recent jury verdicts against Meta and Google.

The undersigned parents in the district are learning from this emerging research, the recent verdicts and this landmark resolution. We hope to support you to build on this momentum and show you that many parents in our Little Silver community are aligned with your continued efforts to approach technology in schools mindfully, including by:

1. Blocking non-educational platforms on district devices. The undersigned parents in the district thank Little Silver leadership for considering prohibiting student-led access/browsing on YouTube beginning in the 2026-2027 school year. We fully support this approach.

2. Clarifying how ed tech and educational tools/websites are vetted. The undersigned parents in the district thank you for including your philosophy and framework for selecting educational technology apps in the Technology Handbook. This information was incredible helpful and we fully support this approach. The LAUSD resolution also suggests that families have a way to review privacy policies for all approved tools, not just a blanket consent form, and also cites concerns over iReady. We would also appreciate the district making individual privacy policies available to parents and would love to understand the district's POV on how the iReady discussion does or does not impact students in our district.

3. Create a formal Screen Time Policy. The undersigned parents in the district thank you for including grade level details of estimated daily screentime in the Technology Handbook. We are grateful to have this information, and as a strengthening mechanism, based on the LAUSD resolution, we respectfully ask the district to consider formalizing this into an official, enforceable and measurable policy outlined in the Technology Handbook, including more information on how screen time guidance per grade was developed, if the district prohibits recreational screen time, during passing periods, lunch, recess, brain breaks and gym class, etc. Additionally, we ask that the district consider developing a system for tracking and reporting screen time by application, grade level, and school that can be shared with the board and with parents/guardians to become a standard measure that is tracked over time and something that parents can use to inform screen-time decisions at home.

4. Transition away from 1:1 devices. The undersigned parents in the district thank you for including details on 1:1 devices in the Technology Handbook. We also appreciate that you are having a conversation about what the appropriate 1:1 device policy should be heading into the 2026-2027 school year. We fully support the district going beyond the LAUSD device policy and delaying the introduction of 1:1 devices as long as possible in favor of shared models like laptop carts and computer labs. Additionally, we support removing the requirement to take devices home for as long as possible as well. When the district makes a decision for 2026-2027 (and beyond), we respectfully request that the Technology Handbook also include how the grade level/age was chosen for introduction of 1:1 devices as well as take-home policies. Lastly, should you decide that devices still come home at a certain point, we also support and thank you for exploring the implementation of the Securly Home app, which would empower parents to control at-home screen time and specific site access directly.

6. Share details about content monitoring. We thank you for sharing that the district views digital monitoring as a standard component of day-to-day classroom supervision and administrative operations, that oversight is maintained through a multi-layered approach and that parents can request more information by speaking to their teachers. We fully support this and would respectfully ask that this information be included in the 2026-2027 Technology Handbook. We also ask the district to consider incorporating a review of our child's digital activity / footprint into already-established mechanisms such as during parent/teacher conferences or alongside report cards, for example.

7. AI strategy and approach. The undersigned parents in the district thank you for including information about AI in the Technology Handbook. That said, given the steep learning period our collective society is in with AI, we believe in being as cautious as possible with introducing AI to our K-8 children. We would ask that the district consider restricting AI tools to teacher instructional materials until the district can verify they've been vetted for safety, legality, and educational efficacy for minors by an unbiased third party. We also ask the district to consider modeling the LAUSD approach of convening a multidisciplinary group on this topic specifically. If the district determines that AI will still be used, we respectfully ask the district to create an opt-out policy to accommodate parents/guardians who are uncomfortable with their children engaging with AI (e.g. with the AI chatbot currently available on school-issued computers).

8. Actively encourage print, physical textbooks, and paper-based homework, especially for elementary and middle school students. The undersigned parents in the district know that our district is already leveraging these mechanisms now in our classrooms and with homework, and we want to share our support to continue to do so as much as possible. We are very grateful for this. We appreciate that the LAUSD resolution calls this out specifically as a focus area, and would love to understand more about the district's POV on this topic.

9. Prioritize and protect recess through at least 8th grade. The undersigned parents in the district understand recess currently ends in 4th grade. That said, as you know, research consistently shows that unstructured outdoor play supports physical health, social development, emotional regulation, and academic focus, and its benefits don't stop at elementary school. With that said, we respectfully ask the district to reconsider reinstating recess in 5th-8th grades.

10. Ensure parents/guardians can also see how digital literacy and digital wellness are specifically taught to children at each age and stage. The undersigned parents in the district recognize and appreciate that the district meets the NJ state requirements to provide digital citizenship to all students. We also greatly appreciate that the district supplements this with additional tools like Converlation in middle school for students and parents, and ad-hoc assemblies and discussions. We fully support the continuation of this. That said, we ask the district to consider making the specific content shared in the digital citizenship lessons easily accessible to parents so that  1) we can be as consistent as possible with language and guidance at home / answer any questions our children have and 2) we can adjust or enhance this guidance with our children accordingly.

11. Form an intentional technology advisory committee made up of teachers, administrators, staff, parents, and outside experts to regularly discuss shifts in the landscape, review district-wide data, discuss student and parent feedback, review current policies, approaches and tools. Leverage this committee to develop recommendations to the administration, BOE and communications to teachers and parents/guardians about any shifts to the approach, new tools, etc. As the undersigned parents in the district, our intention with asking you to consider this is to find the most productive, effective, efficient, consistent, collaborative and compliant way of engaging on this topic on an ongoing basis, given the fast moving nature of this area.

12. Clearly communicate with parents and provide regular opportunities for parent involvement. The undersigned parents in the district thank you for developing the 2025-2026 Technology Handbook. We recognize that this was a huge undertaking and we find it so incredibly helpful. We hope that for the 2026-2027 handbook, it can include additional details mentioned above. And in the spirit of continual improvement, we would also ask the district to consider reinstating an annual technology fair for parents/guardians to see and experience what their children have access to at school "through their eyes" and to give all parents/guardians a way to ask questions in an efficient way that does not place undue burden on our teachers.

Once again, the undersigned parents in the district recognize and appreciate that the district has already very quickly reviewed, responded and acted upon the latest research and information in this space. We also hope the district has found value in the parent feedback provided via the BOE meetings that accelerated many of these conversations.

We are fully aware that the above comes with a lot of thought, work, energy and that things will not happen overnight. We also recognize that there are no perfect answers and no rulebook for much of this. It is our view that we are in this together, that we need each other, and that we will all sleep better at night knowing we are doing the best we possibly can based on what we know today, on behalf of our children. 

And lastly, we hope this effort shows you that a large portion of our Little Silver parent community supports these efforts and is here to help in any way - even if you are not hearing directly from all of the undersigned regularly.


Sincerely,
The Undersigned parents in LS