LAUSD screen – The Los Angeles Unified School Board unanimously approved new screen-time limits, starting in August: no district devices for preschool through 1st grade, tighter caps for older students, bans on device use during lunch and recess, streaming restrictions, and
By Tuesday evening, the Los Angeles Unified School Board was done treating screen time as an afterthought.
In a unanimous vote. board members approved a new policy to limit how long students can use school-provided digital devices. starting in August. The rule comes after a spring vote that required the district to build clear “guardrails” for device time—guidelines that now cover everything from preschool classrooms to older students’ daily routines.
District officials said they received feedback from nearly 19,000 community members since May. In that input, the most repeated concerns were “student focus and attention,” along with mental health and wellbeing, online safety, and privacy.
The policy’s centerpiece is a sharper divide by age and grade. For preschool through 1st grade, district officials said it eliminates the use of district-issued digital devices—including tablets and laptops. For every other grade level, schools will face daily or weekly maximum screen time limits.
There are exceptions. The limits can be lifted for subject areas that rely heavily on computers, including computer science, graphic design, and yearbook, as well as for district and state assessments. The policy also allows unrestricted device use when necessary for students with disabilities.
In middle school, the limits are further complicated—intentionally. Board member Nick Melvoin proposed an amendment that reduced screen time limits for several grades and broke up the restrictions by subject starting in middle school. a move designed to make scheduling more realistic. “It’s much harder for teachers in secondary to coordinate across five or six subjects. ” Melvoin said when explaining the change.
The vote also includes several concrete day-to-day limits:
Elementary and middle school students are banned from using devices during lunch or recess, except for school-approved work.
Streaming services are blocked, including YouTube, along with “non-approved gaming platforms.”
Parents must opt in for students to take home a district device.
The policy encourages the use of laptop carts for upper elementary school grades.
The rules will be updated annually.
Not everyone in the room was focused on the same risk. Board Vice President Rocío Rivas warned that minute-by-minute limits could discourage teachers from assigning multimedia projects. She also said the monitoring burden could shift how schools manage technology—potentially leaving educators to spend more time tracking usage than evaluating learning. “Schools may end up focusing on counting minutes, documenting usage, auditing classrooms instead of evaluating learning outcomes,” Rivas said.
Money is part of the equation, too. The district projected $4 million in one-time costs to buy laptop carts for elementary school classrooms, assuming each class opts in. It also estimated $1 million annually for software designed to track screen time and block content.
The board’s decision sparked a familiar comparison: How is this different from the district’s earlier cellphone ban? District officials made the distinction clear. This policy targets school-issued devices—laptops and iPads—not student cellphones.
The board also acknowledged the long-running debate over digital equity. During the pandemic, LAUSD moved to equip every student with a digital device to help close digital equity gaps. In adopting this new policy. district officials noted that “caution is advised that efforts to close the digital divide for highest needs populations will be negatively impacted.”.
One parent brought that concern into sharper focus. Mireya Garcia, a mother and grandmother, told the board that her family shares a single computer at home. “I don’t want them to lose access to tools that can help them read, to learn and to be successful,” Garcia said.
District staff later clarified that the policy does not prevent students of any age from checking out a device for home use from their school.
But the district’s own analysts also flagged why unrestricted take-home access remains controversial. They pointed to research showing that device access alone doesn’t automatically improve academic outcomes. and they emphasized that take-home access needs adult supervision and engagement. “Because families vary widely in their ability to provide consistent supervision. unrestricted take-home devices raise equity concerns. ” the district’s office of research and program evaluation wrote.
For some families pushing for stronger limits, even the final policy doesn’t go far enough—especially when artificial intelligence enters the classroom.
Representatives of the parent advocacy group Schools Beyond Screens backed the move but argued the board still needs to do more. Lila Byock, who founded the group, said LAUSD was setting a model for other cities. “We’re setting a new standard for the rest of the country. ” Byock said. adding. “From Atlanta. to D.C. to Houston. they’re all trying to do what we’re doing here today.”.
Byock and other parents asked the board to reduce minute limits and to adopt a moratorium on AI use until the district’s ad hoc committee on the subject provides more guidance.
The mechanics of the vote itself carried a final complication. Board president Scott Schmerelson recused himself from the vote and discussion because he owns stock in Google.
On the measure, board members voted yes: Sherlett Hendy Newbill (BD1), Rocío Rivas (BD2), Nick Melvoin (BD4), Karla Griego (BD5), Kelly Gonez (BD6), and Tanya Ortiz Franklin (BD7).
Starting in August. the policy will determine how long students can be on school-issued devices—and where those devices are allowed to appear at all. For LAUSD families. the debate now shifts from whether screens belong in classrooms to how carefully they must be managed. and who bears the burden of that management.
LAUSD screen time student devices Los Angeles Unified School District digital equity YouTube ban opt-in take home devices artificial intelligence Rocío Rivas Nick Melvoin
About time. Kids are on screens enough at home.
Not sure why they’re acting like school devices are the main problem, my kid’s phone is the real issue lol. Still, no devices at lunch sounds kinda extreme but I get it.
So they’re banning streaming too? That’s gonna mess up the lessons, like what are they gonna do, worksheets forever? Also when they say “no district devices” for preschool, does that mean they can use their parents’ phones in class? Cuz that part isn’t clear.
Unanimous vote sounds great, but I’m just thinking—if they cut screen time, then how are they tracking attendance and grades? Like everything’s on the computer now. They say it’s for focus and mental health, but I feel like this will just shift kids to something else, maybe more paper, and the teachers will still be stressed.