Overview:
The Washoe Parents Coalition says screen time has become nearly impossible for families to avoid, even for parents trying to delay smartphones and reduce device use at home. Part II looks at what educational technology — or EdTech — is, how it’s being used in the classroom, and why parents are asking for lawmakers to dial it back.
In Part I, we were introduced to the Washoe Parents Coalition, a grassroots organization made of parents asking for change not only in their own children’s schools, but in classrooms across Nevada.
The first part of our dive looked at the coalition’s calls to protect recess and prioritize play for elementary students statewide.
Recently, the group announced it is introducing a bill during the 84th legislative session called “Say YES to RECESS,” aiming to pass a state law that ensures all Nevada children receive adequate, legally protected play time during the school day.
But parents say the push for recess is now part of a larger argument over what childhood is supposed to look like inside public schools.
Two local moms, Brandi Vesco, a former education and technology reporter, and Larissa Viner, a registered school nurse, initiated the Wait Until 8th chapter in Northern Nevada earlier this year. The national campaign asks parents to hold off providing smartphones to their children until the end of eighth grade in an effort to protect their brain development and mental health.
Once the advocacy began, it began expanding; first, into advocating for stricter enforcement around recess and physical play during at school. But as parents began organizing around recess, they say a more concerning issue appeared alongside the reduction in physical activity: the increased time students now spend sitting on screens.
That realization has driven the coalition to embrace the “Schools Beyond Screens” initiative, which aims to roll back the 1:1 device model in classrooms and block student access to generative artificial intelligence tools until the technology is proven to be safe, legal and effective.
Now, they are asking lawmakers for a number of reforms to protect student wellness. In addition to recess and physical play, these include limiting the amount of time students are required to spend on screens, and instituting stricter guidelines when it comes to purchasing new EdTech.
What exactly is EdTech?
Educational Technology, or EdTech, is the term used for computer software systems and hardware devices used for educational purposes both in and out of the classroom.
This ranges from 1:1 device models — where every student is issued a laptop or tablet — to online lesson and assessment platforms such as i-Ready, digital note-taking apps, and increasingly, generative artificial intelligence tools designed to assist with writing, reading comprehension, lesson planning and other classroom tasks.
However, the coalition found that for many students, EdTech isn’t being used as a tool, but as an educator itself — and they argue it is falling short.
Vesco said to her and other parents in the coalition, the pivot toward screen-based learning is alarming given there isn’t enough independent data proving it is effective.
“We can’t afford to spend our limited education funds on anything not proven to help students learn,” she said.
She said their concern is not whether students should learn how to use technology. Their concern is that devices and digital platforms have moved from occasional tools to the default delivery system for instruction, testing, homework, writing practice and student intervention.
Carson City reports positive academic gains through EdTech programs
In contradiction to the coalition’s concerns, some districts are reporting already seeing positive associations with EdTech programs.
According to recent discussions held by the Carson City School Board, schools rely on these platforms to fulfill standardized testing requirements, track student performance metrics and automate grading. Recently, some districts have also adopted AI tools to help teachers save time on administrative tasks, lesson planning and differentiating instruction for various learning levels.
“A key paradigm we have here in Carson City School District is that our curriculum comes first,” Chief Academic Officer Brandon Bringhurst said. “AI is a tool that comes second. Our foundation is grounded in the curriculum that we have worked very hard to develop and [we] adopt resources that align with what our students need to know.”
Bringhurst said the district leverages AI not only to help with student learning, but to help teachers focus on providing it.
“[We use AI programs] to focus on how we can gain real efficiency in the work that our teachers are doing,” he said. “The more time we can save teachers on the administrative paperwork tasks, the more time and energy they have for … the real magic in working with our students directly.”
District officials and EdTech proponents argue that, when used properly, digital tools can provide immediate feedback, identify gaps in student understanding and offer targeted interventions that a single teacher may not always be able to provide in a classroom of 30 students.
At Bordewich Bray Elementary School, a pilot of the AI writing tool WriteOn, yielded “incredible results,” according to English Learner teacher Kaylee Davenport.
“It gives them feedback immediately … sentence by sentence,” she told the board. “It’s taken their learning and their writing process just to wonderful heights.”
However, while these programs may be helping some students — especially those in special populations like English Learners or students with neurodivergence, Vesco says that current research does not support that for the average student EdTech is helping.
On the contrary, she says too much screen time — educational or not — is being shown to actively harm all students, but especially those in elementary school.
What the research says about screens and learning
The concern, parents say, is not only academic — it’s developmental.
A number of research studies have been published in the last few years relating to student learning outcomes on screens versus traditional methods like textbooks or paper hand outs.
A 2019 study found a negative connection between tablet use in school and fourth-grade reading scores. A more recent Columbia University neuroscience study found that reading text from a screen resulted in “shallower processing,” while reading from a physical book or paper handout resulted in students building “richer cognitive networks” with deeper comprehension and recall about the information.
The timing of screen exposure is also a focus for researchers. A longitudinal study monitoring children over a decade found that high screen viewing around age six disrupted brain development, resulting in lower working memory capacity by age 10.5.
Researchers attributed this to the “displacement effect,” meaning that no matter what a student is viewing on a screen, simply the activity of screen viewing takes away from the real-world, hands-on learning interactions required to develop early memory.
For parents in the coalition, that is the crux of the issue. Even if some educational platforms can show benefits in specific contexts, parents argue school districts have moved too quickly toward widespread screen-based learning without proving that the overall tradeoff is worth it.
But for parents who want less screen time, they say opting out is proving to be far more complicated than simply asking for paper.
When opting out means opting out of access
When Vesco was told her WCSD third-grader was spending about 30 minutes per subject each week on the i-Ready platform, she requested her child’s usage data to verify it. After “jumping through hoops” to receive the information, which included having to navigating a third-party software service to access the records, Vesco said she discovered her daughter actually spent up to 80 minutes a week just