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  • We are a group of Edina parents and community members, working towards a more thoughtful K-12 approach to technology. We believe it’s time for a reset: less 1:1 screen time overall, clearer standards for when and how devices are used, stronger review of the tools students rely on, and better overall student outcomes.

  • National data shows that students are spending between 1-4 hours of instructional time on devices - with a reported 27% of students spend more than five hours of class time each day on their screens.

    Lightspeed, the filtering tool used at EPS, reports that, nationally, the biggest increase in screen use comes in middle school years (6th-8th grade), and that 84% of all students’ screen time occurs during school hours.   

    When kids rely on a screen for their schoolwork, it introduces several challenges:

    • Cognitive and Physical Fatigue: Prolonged daily interaction with digital displays is frequently linked to digital eye strain, headaches, and increased mental fatigue, which can impact a student's sustained focus.

    • Information Retention and Comprehension: Comparative studies indicate that reading print materials and taking notes by hand can lead to higher levels of reading comprehension and long-term information retention when compared to reading and typing on a digital interface.

    • Learning Outcomes: A 2022 OECD PISA study found that students who spend more than one hour per day on digital devices at school experience a sharp drop in learning outcomes. On average across OECD countries, students who spent five to seven hours a day on digital devices in school scored 49 points lower in mathematics than peers who used devices for under an hour a day.  In PISA’s standard metric, a 49-point decline is the equivalent of losing roughly two full years of formal schooling.

  • Actually, global studies show the reverse. Research like the OECD PISA study found that kids who use devices for under an hour a day at school actually score higher and retain more than kids using screens in the classroom for five-plus hours.

  • We are advocating for actionable, common-sense guardrails, including:

    • Limiting number of hours spent on screens: we are advocating to work with the school board, teachers and administrators to set public, evidence-based requirements around the number of hours of instructional and classroom time spent on 1:1 devices for Edina students, based on their age and stage of learning.

    • Screen-Free Blocks: Guaranteeing screen-free instructional blocks daily, particularly for reading, math fundamentals, and social-emotional learning.

    • Paper-by-Default: Ensuring the default to classroom instruction starts with a hands-on, tech-free focus, and digital devices are used only when necessary.

    • Tech-Free Social Spaces: Keeping lunchrooms, hallways, and recess entirely device-free to encourage real-world socialization.

  • Not at all! We aren't anti-technology. We just want technology used as smart tools for specific lessons, not as the default setting for the whole school day. We believe that evidence-based use of classroom technology - like the best practice guide seen here from EverySchool.org - is a thoughtful way forward.

  • We fully support the state-mandated push - and the district's recent adoption - of stricter cell phone rules. However, there is a noted difference between personal cell phones and district-provided technology:

    • Cell Phones Are Already Explicitly Restricted: Following Minnesota's state mandate, Edina Public Schools instituted a structured device tier system (classifying environments as "Away," "Gray," or "Okay"). In Edina classrooms, "Away" is the strict default standard - meaning cell phones must be turned completely off and stored away during instructional blocks.

    • Laptops Are a Mandatory Requirement: While a student can be disciplined for pulling out a cell phone, they are required to be issued 1:1 to every student in grades 2-12,  with curriculum built around the Schoology platform for grades 6-12. 

    • Digital Distractions Can Persist on School Devices: Restricting personal cell phones does not automatically eliminate digital distractions; in many cases, it shifts the behavior to school-issued laptops. Studies have shown that educators frequently observe students using their district devices or laptops during instructional time to access non-academic content, such as online games, messaging platforms, or streaming services. Because the Minnesota Student Data Privacy Act places strict limits on real-time surveillance and the tracking of individual student keystrokes or active web interactions, standard network filters cannot completely prevent or monitor these quiet, device-based distractions during a lesson.

    • Addressing Overall Screen Time Limits: While cell phone restrictions reduce non-academic social media use, they do not impact the total volume of daily screen time required for core instructional activities. Our group focuses on school-issued laptops to advocate for a pedagogical balance that combines digital tools with traditional learning methods, such as print textbooks, handwritten assignments, and face-to-face peer collaboration in Edina classrooms. 

  • Cell phone bans are awesome for stopping social media distractions, but kids still have to open their school-issued laptops for classwork - where unmonitored games and messaging can be just one click away.

  • District software manages internet access and safety compliance, but it does not regulate overall screen duration or provide continuous, real-time monitoring of student focus.

    While Edina Public Schools utilizes network filters and Mobile Device Management (MDM) software, like Lightspeed, to block restricted websites, these safety tools are not designed to limit total screen time hours.

    Furthermore, the Minnesota Student Data Privacy Act (Minn. Stat. § 13.32) establishes strict legal boundaries regarding student surveillance. The law prohibits school districts and technology vendors from actively monitoring individual student keystrokes or real-time web-browsing interactions on school-issued devices, except under narrow emergency exemptions.

    This means that software filters cannot track every instance of student distraction or off-task behavior, leaving classroom device management as an ongoing operational responsibility for teachers and families.

  • An individual "opt-out" policy doesn’t solve the root problem because it places the burden on individual parents, isolates students, and causes extra work for teachers, rather than fixing a systemic classroom issue.

    While an opt-out policy sounds like an easy fix on paper, it creates several practical challenges in a real classroom environment:

    • It Creates a Digital Divide in the Classroom: If only a few parents opt out, their children are given paper packets while the rest of the class works on Chromebooks. This unintentionally isolates those students, changes the classroom dynamic, and can make kids feel singled out or excluded from their peers.

    • It Adds to the Teacher’s Workload: Forcing teachers to manage two completely different versions of the same lesson—one digital and one paper—for different students in the same room creates an unsustainable amount of extra prep work. We want to support Edina teachers, not give them double the homework.

    • The Curriculum is Gatekept by Technology: In many grades, core elements of the Edina curriculum - like readings on Schoology or assignments on educational apps - are deeply integrated into the digital platform. A student cannot simply "opt out" of the device without being completely cut off from the core learning materials.

    • We Need a District-Wide Baseline Shift: Our goal is a systemic reset. We aren't trying to change things for just a few families; we want to ensure that every child in Edina Public Schools benefits from a healthy, age-appropriate balance of traditional learning and technology.

  • Join us! Add your email to our list, and help us show the School Board that families want a balanced approach to classroom tech. We have ongoing activations at schools, school board meetings, and community events that you can be involved with.

    Share your story! Reach out to our email and tell us how 1:1 device screens have impacted your child’s learning journey.