Petition for Intentional Technology Use in Spring Branch ISD Schools
A campaign from Schools Beyond Screens - SBISD Schools Beyond Screens
Sign This Campaign
Why This Matters
The largest school districts in the country, led by the recent resolution passed by LA Unified School District, are starting to move on classroom screen time -- setting hard grade-level limits, blocking YouTube and gaming platforms on school devices, eliminating devices for the youngest students, and requiring weekly screen reports to parents.
This isn't happening because administrators woke up and decided to act. It's happening because parents organized, showed up, and made it impossible to ignore.
Your school board has the same authority right now. They do not need to wait for state guidance or federal standards. Dozens of districts have already acted. What they need to hear is that their own community is paying attention and expects them to lead.
This petition gives them exactly that signal. The letter is based on real resolutions that have already passed -- the same structure, the same core asks, adapted so any community can put it in front of their board. It takes about three minutes to set up and a few shares to gain momentum.
Your board gets a concrete ask from real families in their district. That's the whole mechanism. It works.
Pillar 1: Analog-Default Classrooms & Curriculums
- Paper-First Standard: Establish paper-based instruction, physical textbooks, and handwritten assignments as the default educational standard across the district.
- Screen-Free Early Education: Implement screen-free classrooms for Pre-K through 2nd grade to protect foundational early childhood development.
- Purpose-Driven Tech (Grades 3–8): Eliminate routine 1-to-1 device dependency in middle and elementary grades. Shift tech use to dedicated, supervised computer labs or shared carts utilized only for specific, time-limited instructional goals.
- Offline Homework Policies: Require that homework assignments be provided in an offline format by default, ensuring home environments can remain screen-free.
- Screen-Free Campus Social Spaces: Protect student socialization and physical health by maintaining entirely screen-free environments during recesses, lunches, and passing periods.
- Strict Whitelisting Protocol: Enforce district-wide, strict "safelisting" on all student devices, restricting access exclusively to websites and applications that have been formally vetted and approved by district leadership.
- Parental Transparency: Guarantee full parental visibility and on-demand access to a public log of approved classroom websites/apps, individual student screen-time metrics, browsing histories, and vendor privacy policies.
- Data & AI Protections: Strengthen district policies surrounding student data collection, commercial tracking, and the exposure of student work or data to generative AI models.
- Formal Vetting & Annual Auditing: Institutionalize a rigorous vetting and mandatory annual audit process for every educational technology tool, platform, and application utilized within SBISD classrooms to ensure ongoing compliance with safety and privacy standards.
As parents in SBISD, we are deeply concerned that excessive, unmonitored classroom screen time is replacing vital teacher-led instruction and actively eroding our children's reading comprehension, focus, and core academic skills. Furthermore, parents are facing the direct fallout at home, witnessing firsthand how daily overexposure triggers behavioral issues, severe screen withdrawal, and social isolation.
Sincerely,
The undersigned
Recent Supporters
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1 day ago
Kirsten Kempf
Parent
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1 day ago
Jesse Kempf
Parent
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9 days ago
Holly Sweet
Parent