Los Angeles Unified School District is introducing age-based classroom screen-time limits, ranging from no weekly screen time for its youngest students to 10 hours a week for high schoolers.
A Cedars-Sinai pediatric neurologist says reducing screen exposure could give children more opportunities to develop language, reading, social, and higher-level thinking skills.
The new limits include screen-based homework, while parents are also being encouraged to establish screen-free periods at home, particularly before bedtime and during meals.
Schools in Los Angeles are cutting the amount of time students spend looking at screens as educators and parents grapple with the role technology plays in children's learning and development.
The Los Angeles Unified School District and several neighboring districts are introducing stricter age-based limits on classroom screen time for the new school year, according to Cedars-Sinai.
Under the guidance, children in early education, kindergarten, and first grade will have no weekly classroom screen time. Students in grades two and three will be limited to one hour and 40 minutes a week, while fourth- and fifth-graders will be limited to two and a half hours.
The limits rise to six hours a week for students in grades six through eight, and 10 hours for high school students. Screen-based homework counts toward the limits.
The changes come amid concerns about how heavy screen use could affect developing brains.
Dr. Jane Tavyev Asher, a pediatric neurologist and director of the Division of Pediatric Neurology at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children's, said childhood is a particularly important period for developing language, reading, attention, and social skills.
Asher argues that excessive screen exposure can place greater emphasis on visual processing while reducing opportunities for conversation, face-to-face interaction, and other experiences involved in developing language and social abilities. Reducing classroom screen use, she said, could create more opportunities for active learning and conversation.
The issue may be especially significant for younger children. During early childhood, auditory and language centers develop rapidly as children speak and interact with other people. Heavy screen use can potentially displace those interactions, including opportunities to recognize facial expressions, body language, and other social cues, according to Asher.
Screen use raises different concerns as children get older
For middle school students, the concern shifts toward the development of higher-level thinking.
Around age 12, children increasingly begin connecting ideas, asking questions, and pursuing answers independently, Asher said. She cautioned that passive consumption of information through screens — including reliance on artificial intelligence — may provide fewer opportunities to exercise those skills than more active forms of learning.
Smartphones present another challenge because students can carry them and access them throughout the day.
Asher recommended that families consider delaying smartphones and pointed to the “Wait Until 8th” movement, in which participating parents pledge to postpone giving children smartphones until at least the end of eighth grade or age 13. For families that need to stay in contact with their children, she suggested a basic phone without internet access as an alternative.
Parents can reinforce limits at home
Schools aren't the only place where screen habits are formed.
Asher recommends that parents encourage alternatives such as reading, creative play, outdoor activities, and spending time together as a family. Parents can also model the behavior they want their children to adopt by paying attention to their own screen habits.
Among her recommendations is establishing a screen-free period for at least two hours before bedtime and keeping devices away during meals. The latter gives families more opportunities for conversation and interaction, while reducing screens before bed can help children avoid bright light immediately before sleep.
The new school policies represent a notable shift after years in which laptops, tablets, and other digital tools became increasingly integrated into education.
For families, however, the broader question extends beyond how much technology schools use. It is how to balance the convenience and educational potential of digital tools with the face-to-face interactions and active learning experiences children need as they develop.