Turning Life On
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When They Say No: Answers to Common Pushback
Nine common objections from administrators, and what you can say. Plus the questions to ask about any EdTech tool. From the Advocate's Toolkit.
Your Consent Counts
Most schools ask for your consent to your child's internet and device use, often buried in an annual form. Here's how to find it, give it with conditions, decline it, or take it back. Includes letter templates.
Why Distraction-Free Learning Matters
What the research says about phones and screens during the school day, what Massachusetts schools are already seeing, and what families can do.
Where We Stand on Tech
Our platform: age-by-age guidance on phones, social media, gaming, school technology and AI, grounded in child development, holistic health and values-based parenting.
What Is Addictive Design?
It's not you. It's the design. How apps and games are built to capture attention, what the research shows, and what families, schools and communities can do about it.
Green Tier 3: Healthy Defaults on School Devices
This priority asks districts to work with IT to enable a set of settings most schools already have access to. These include downtime hours, after-hours restrictions, and blocked full YouTube access, allowing only teacher-embedded videos.
Green Tier 2: Phone-free Schools Policy
A bell-to-bell, phone-free school day is the most legislatively advanced of all our priorities. Massachusetts’ House and Senate have already agreed on the personal-device provisions of pending legislation, which, contrary to what many districts claim, means districts do not need to wait for a final vote or a policy from DESE to act.
Green Tier 1: Ditch "Free" Screen-time
This is the easiest, lowest-cost place to start. There's no policy to pass and no IT ticket to file. All you need to do is have a conversation with a teacher about what happens during “free time” in the classroom.
Black Tier 3: Digital Product Standards
Sets the standards every digital product, including AI, should be measured against before it reaches a classroom, including safety, privacy, educational effectiveness, equity, and independence from the industry it’s meant to evaluate. Most districts already have a review process in place, and are hesitant to give authority to an outside body. That said, there are many reasons why parents deserve a seat at the table, and why this process needs to be continuously updated and transparent.
Black Tier 1: Next steps on healthy defaults on school devices
Escalates Green Tier’s Healthy Defaults and Tiered Access to Screens by Grade Band, includes: whitelist-only access in grades K–8, a maintained blocklist in grades 9–12, cameras off by default, non-instructional platforms (including social media and gaming) blocked outright, AI tools disabled by default district-wide, personal data fully wiped before device reassignment, and EdTech audit, reduction and transparency.
Full Black: Next Steps on Defaults and Digital Product Standards Playbooks
Black tier priorities are the most technical asks in this system as they touch IT infrastructure, procurement, and (for Pause on High-Risk AI and Digital Product Standards) may require School Committee action rather than administrative implementation alone. They’re a natural next step for districts that have already moved on Healthy Defaults or stood up a Tech Advisory Committee, but none of the three is a prerequisite for another.
Blue Tier 3: Tech Advisory Committee Playbook
A Tech Advisory Committee is a standing parent and community voice researching and recommending how the district approaches technology. It gives families a real, standing voice in the district’s technology direction.