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The Balance Project | Central Virginia Region
Technology in Schools: A Community Conversation
Kids, Screens and Schools: A Community Town Hall
Tuesday, November 17, 2026, 6:00 to 7:30pm
North Courthouse Road Library
325 Courthouse Rd, Richmond, VA 23236
Free, and everyone is welcome
We've asked people who know this subject well to come and answer questions, and most of the evening is the open floor. If you've wondered whether you're the only parent uneasy about how much of your child's school day happens on a screen, you aren't. Come find out what your neighbors have been thinking.
Here to answer:
> Dr. Kate Bowers, pediatrician, Firefly Pediatrics
> W. Monty Jones, Ph.D., professor of education at VCU, whose work is on classroom technology
> Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, who is working on this at the state level and taught in a classroom himself
Bring anything: what the research actually says, what's changing inside Virginia school divisions right now, what happened at your own child's school this month, or what to do about the laptop that comes home every night and gets opened again after dinner and stays open until somebody says something. You don't need to have read anything or followed any of this to come.
The General Assembly goes back into session in January, and school technology will be on the table again. This is the room where we find out what families around here actually want!
You won't get a slideshow of alarming numbers, and nobody is going to tell you to throw the laptops out. We're not anti-tech, we're pro-childhood.
A short opening from our panelists, then the floor opens and stays open. You can send a question ahead of time when you RSVP if you'd rather not raise your hand on the night.
Hosted by The Balance Project, Central Virginia.
