Limiting Tech and AI in Schools

My FOCUS Act creates age-appropriate limits on tech in classrooms, ensuring kids’ learning comes before Big Tech’s profits

Tech corporations are treating kids like a science experiment, flooding schools with questionable ed tech products without oversight, family input, or basic evaluation.

Nearly 9 in 10 American public schools now provide every student with a school-issued device like a laptop or tablet, even though research shows increased classroom screen use is associated with weaker learning outcomes. Meanwhile, a study of 50 countries found the use of AI in education can "undermine children's foundational development" and that "the damages it has already caused are daunting."

This free-for-all may help Big Tech’s bottom line, but it certainly isn’t helping kids learn.

That’s why I’ve introduced The Fostering Optimal Classroom Use of Screens (FOCUS) Act, which creates rules of the road that ensure learning comes first.

Under my FOCUS Act, schools would be required to offer screen-free learning to students in grades pre-k through five, and prioritize face-to-face and pencil-and-paper learning. Students in grades six through eight would be able access screen devices via a “computer cart” or lab model in which devices are rotated amongst students, while high school students would be able to access screens as part of a cart model or on a one-to-one basis with permission from a parent or caregiver. 

My bill also creates a “right to analog learning” by requiring schools to prioritize assignments that students can complete screen-free. Parents and students would also be able to opt out of screen usage for assignments when non-digital options exist. And it would require school-issued devices be free of social media, gaming, and messaging apps; chatbots, generative AI, and conversational AI platforms; and cameras—features that provide little educational value but that have proven to be distracting, detrimental to mental health, and conducive to cyberbullying.

The FOCUS would require ed tech companies to register with the state before offering products to schools. They’ll have to demonstrate their products are in compliance with state laws, that they don’t include distracting features, and that they’re proven to improve academic performance. It would require the State Education Department to update its computer science and digital fluency learning standards to teach students media literacy skills and ways to safely navigate social media. And it would update student privacy protections to stop ed tech companies from abusing kids’ data.

Tech plays an indispensable role in the modern world, and we should prepare our kids to use it to lead rewarding, successful lives. But when it comes to screens in schools, we can’t afford to be on AI-powered autopilot. Smart policymaking can ensure the needs of our children, not Big Tech’s profit motives, guide us in the right direction.