U.S. schools pull back on classroom devices amid screen backlash

American schools are reversing years of technology investment, with Los Angeles Unified — the nation's second-largest school district — becoming the first major district to ban devices for students through first grade, The Korea Times reported.

The nationwide course correction signals a reckoning with pandemic-era device saturation — a trend Southern California families, teachers, and lawmakers helped accelerate as screen addiction concerns, sinking test scores, and billions in questionable edtech spending converge.

The Los Angeles school board passed a sweeping resolution set to take effect in fall 2026, eliminating devices for students through first grade, capping screen time for older grades, blocking YouTube, banning devices at lunch and recess, and ordering an audit of $1.6 billion in education technology contracts identified by the teachers union, according to The Korea Times. The policy represents the sharpest reversal yet of a decade-long push that saw 96 percent of U.S. public schools distributing devices to students by the 2021-22 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Anna Soffer, a sixth-grade English and history teacher at a Los Angeles middle school, said the original drive for classroom technology came from genuine conviction. "The idea was that technology is the future, so we need to put tech in every child's hands," Soffer said, according to The Korea Times. The daily classroom reality proved harder to manage. "The Chromebook is just a world of distraction," she said. "Every day, I'm battling, 'Who would you rather listen to, Ms. Soffer or Minecraft?'"

Parent advocacy has accelerated the policy shift. Katie Pace, a mother of three and member of the group Schools Beyond Screens, framed the problem as one reaching into family life. "My daughter went to middle school and was sent home with a screen addiction in her backpack," Pace said, according to The Korea Times.

The reversal is spreading beyond Los Angeles. Fresno Unified, which serves 40,000 elementary students, reclaimed take-home laptops and restricted them to in-school use, while spending $4 million annually on device repairs and replacements, The Korea Times reported. Districts in Philadelphia suburbs, Simi Valley and Arlington, Virginia have also tightened device policies. According to Ballotpedia, at least 14 states have proposed laws limiting school screen time, and the federal government has issued a public health advisory on excessive youth screen use.

Nick Melvoin, an LAUSD school board member, described the new policy as a necessary correction. "During the pandemic, getting kids devices was a lifeline. Now, it's time that we reset," Melvoin said, according to The Korea Times. Alex Bird Becker, founder of PA Unplugged, a Pennsylvania parent advocacy organization, challenged the evidence base for continued edtech investment. "If there's really no evidence that it helps, and in fact there's evidence that it's harmful, what are we doing? Test scores are at their lowest point," Becker said.

At a parent organizing meeting in Arlington, Virginia, Kristina Jackson offered a stark long-term verdict. "Ten years from now, I can't imagine us looking back with any other reaction than: How could we have been so naive that we just handed these devices to our kids," Jackson said, according to The Korea Times.