Adam Wittenberg | March 5, 2026
(The Lion) — Lawmakers in at least five states are taking cues from classical schooling by introducing proposals to restrict education technology in K-5 classrooms.
The proposals would limit or ban the use of technology such as videos, online learning apps and other digital tools, K-12 Dive reported. The move comes amid a rise in artificial intelligence-driven programs and follows recent actions by school districts to ban or restrict students’ use of personal devices such as cellphones.
The policies parallel classical schools, which often restrict technology in the lower grades, gradually introducing it in middle and high school and only for specific tasks, such as research or writing papers.
The proposals range from complete bans in Kansas and Tennessee – where students and teachers would be prohibited from using digital devices for instruction – to a Virginia measure that would require the state Education Department to establish model policies and screen-time limits for each grade, K-12 Dive reported.
The Kansas bill would allow students in grades 6-8 to use screens for one hour per day, ban digital textbooks and prohibit programs requiring schools to provide a device, such as a laptop or tablet, to each student. High school students would be allowed a school-issued device, but in-school use would be capped at 1.5 hours per day.
The Kansas bill is sponsored by the Senate Education Committee and had a hearing Tuesday.
Other states considering similar restrictions include Missouri and West Virginia.
While some experts have argued against allowing young children to use technology in school, the nation’s largest teachers’ unions – the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association – along with groups such as AASA, The School Superintendents Association, oppose an outright ban.
Those groups sent a letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation in January arguing that classroom use differs from “largely unsupervised, entertainment-driven technology use at home.”
They support “the intentional, monitored, and carefully curated use of technology in schools – where digital tools are employed to support learning and prepare students for future academic and workforce demands,” according to written testimony submitted for a hearing on youth mental health.
But groups such as the Distraction-Free Schools Policy Project advocate eliminating technology use in the lower grades and limiting it in grades 6-8, as well as allowing parents to opt their children out of using technology in schools.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who chairs the Senate committee, spoke in support of restricting student technology use, citing rising mental health, social and safety concerns linked to excessive screen time. He said children ages 8 to 12 average five and a half hours of screen time per day and that teens spend “half of the time that a teenager is awake” on screens.
“Sadly, parents face further challenges in monitoring and limiting their children’s screen time, in part because our education system, fueled by federal subsidies and incentives, has increasingly required the use of internet-connected devices in schools,” Cruz said at the hearing.
“There’s a role, to be sure, for technology in the classroom, but we should discuss whether assigning personal devices to children is actually improving academic outcomes or doing more harm than good.”
Cruz is backing legislation to roll back what he calls “unsupervised internet access” for children, which he said expanded under the Biden administration, and the Kids Off Social Media Act, a bipartisan measure to restrict certain features by age and limit social media access on federally funded school networks and devices.
“No school getting federal taxpayer dollars would allow kids to access social media in the classroom,” Cruz said of the legislation. “I am hopeful that the House will pass this bill, the Senate will pass this bill, and we will send it to the president’s desk to become law.”
This article was made available to EdNews Virginia via The Lion, a publication of the Herzog Foundation.