ARDMORE, Pa. – The Lower Merion School Board voted Monday night to repeal the district’s current technology policy and begin work on a new one.
The decision drew sharp criticism from dozens of parents who attended the meeting to keep pushing for the right to opt their children out of the district’s 1:1 policy, which gives students district-issued Chromebooks or iPads.
For months, parents in Lower Merion have raised concerns about their children having access to those devices, saying they worry about the effects of excessive screen time. Districts across the country are having similar conversations, including in Los Angeles and Arlington, Virginia.
One young student told the school board at Monday’s meeting, “I don’t want to spend the majority of my school day on a computer. I want to be taught by a teacher, and use real books and hand-written notes.”
Erin Amini, a pediatrician and mother of Lower Merion students, said, “One-to-one devices are not educational. They are a distraction and unsafe in the hands of our underdeveloped kids.”
Lower Merion’s technology policy had stated that the district would do its best to accommodate parents who wanted to opt their children out of receiving district-issued digital devices. However, school board member Anna Shurak said that isn’t how the policy actually worked, and that opting out isn’t possible for students.
Monday night, the board voted to repeal the current policy, which included that ‘opt out’ language.
Abby Lerner Rubin was one of two board members who voted against the repeal.
“Repealing this, repealing these policies, would go against our best practice when we don’t have another policy to stand up,” Rubin said.
Shurak said the repeal is necessary to move forward.
“By not repealing that policy, it does not allow educators or our administrators to do what’s necessary to enact the change the community has been asking for,” she said.
Shurak added that the vote will let the board discuss and move ahead with a new technology proposal. That proposal states technology won’t be used for classroom instruction for students in kindergarten through 2nd grade. It also states students won’t be issued an individual device until 5th grade, and won’t be required to take it home until 7th grade.