Assemblywoman proposes tighter limits on screens in schools
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The reaction was swift earlier this year when the Salamanca City Central School District proposed using a Realbotix educational robot and digital avatar designed to support teaching and learning in its high school STEAM program.
That project was quickly shelved after widespread criticism, but a state lawmaker wants to go a step further by implementing grade-based limits on students' access to internet-enabled devices. Assemblywoman Sarahana Shrestha, D-Kingston, recently introduced the Fostering Optimal Classroom Use Of Screens (FOCUS) Act. The bill (A.11669) would phase in grade-based limits on pupils’ access to Internet-enabled devices and limit the use of social media, gaming, direct messaging, and other apps Shrestha said serve little to no instructional purpose. The legislation would constitute a major change for schools in the state. The earliest it could be discussed is the next state legislative session starting in January.
"Known as the Fostering Optimal Classroom Use of Screens (FOCUS) Act, this bill aligns with the precedent set by New York’s 2025 bell-to-bell ban for students’ personal devices, which put an end to the havoc that smartphones were wreaking in classrooms through their ability to addict, distract, and impair the mental health of student users," Shrestha wrote in her legislative justification. "The FOCUS Act builds upon this framework by recognizing that it makes little sense for the State of New York to go through the trouble of limiting personal devices if we are then going to bring them right back in the form of school-issued devices."
For early childhood and elementary school pupils in pre-kindergarten through fifth grades, Shrestha proposes students generally be prohibited from accessing screens and instead complete assignments via pencil and paper wherever feasible. For middle school students in sixth through eighth grades, students will access screens via a computer cart or lab model wherein devices are rotated amongst students in a classroom. High school students would access screens as part of a cart model or on a one-to-one basis with caregiver opt in,
Shrestha also proposes creating a right to analog learning, meaning schools and teachers would prioritize in-class and homework assignments that allow students to complete them in a screen-free manner wherever feasible. Parents and students would additionally be able to opt out of screens where a reasonable non-digital alternative to completing an assignment exists, and schools would be prohibited from retaliating against pupils who exercise this right, The opt-out provision would not apply to assignments where use of the technology is inherent to the learning objective of the assignment, such as assignments undertaken pursuant to the state Education Department's computer science and digital fluency standards.
"This bill also strengthens families’ ability to understand and limit their children’s use of school technology. Before each school year, schools must give caregivers a specific listing of the hardware and software pupils will use, along with a summary of the latest medical research on the effects of excessive screen time on youth and other related information," Shrestha wrote. "Teachers, in turn, must prioritize non-digital instruction wherever feasible, and homework for pupils in prekindergarten through grade six should not require the Internet or device access. For any assignment that does not inherently depend on a device to meet a learning objective, a pupil or caregiver may choose a non-digital alternative, free from any risk of penalty or retaliation."
School-issued devices would be required to be free of all social media platforms, gaming platforms, direct messaging platforms, chatbots, generative Al, conversational Al, and cameras, as Shretsha said such features can be distracting, detrimental to youth mental health or conducive to cyberbullying. The FOCUS Act also states students should not be required to create or maintain social media in order to participate in official school functions and assignments.
Educational technology companies would be required to register with the state Attorney General's office before being allowed to offer their ed tech products to school districts. In registering, education technology companies would self-attest that their products are: in full compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and Section 2-D of Education Law; capable of blocking integration with the apps prohibited in section 33 of the FOCUS Act. The technology would also have to keep student users from searching for media unrelated to the instructional content of the app, are free of features that distract student users and have been proven in at least one independent study to result in improved academic performance for student users. Products that can't meet those criteria would not be allowed to be used on school-issued devices.
Schools would also be required to teach about the impacts of excessive screen time on young users, the physical and
mental health challenges associated with prolonged social media use, best practices for how to safely navigate direct messaging services that connect minors with other unknown users and media literacy skills.
"The FOCUS Act thus strikes the right balance between promoting responsible use of screens in an educational context and limiting screens where they do not enhance learning," Shrestha wrote. "It establishes a graduated framework for school-issued device access based on grade level: no access to digital devices at all for pupils in prekindergarten through grade two, access only to supervised, shared devices in a computer lab or cart model for grades three through eight, and one-to-one devices for grades nine through 12 with a caregiver’s informed opt-in, with a further opt-in required before such a device can be taken home. This ensures that the youngest pupils are shielded from screens altogether and that families retain control over when and how their children begin independent device use."