Virginia has already moved against the phones students bring to school. Now, a coalition of parents and former teachers want the state to look at the technology that schools hand out to students.
Speaking at a state Board of Education business meeting, advocates urged Virginia leaders to adopt a statewide framework for approving and overseeing the digital products used in Virginia's public schools, which enroll about 1.26 million students across roughly 2,175 schools. They're asking that classroom software be vetted the way curriculum materials are, rather than adopted app by app at the school or teacher level.
What the draft policy would do
The proposal sets statewide minimum standards meant to ensure digital tools used with students are appropriate, approved, and used properly. Advocates say those products should support learning, privacy, and safety without putting student well-being at risk or turning children into a revenue stream.
The policy would give students and caregivers the right to opt out of the use of digital products as part of a child's education, and it would protect teachers who choose to teach without electronic devices.
The case advocates are making
Keena McAvoy, a parent and co-founder of the nonprofit DMV Unplugged, said she is uncertain what the Virginia Department of Education knows about how technology is being used in classrooms.
"I don't think there's a clear picture of what exactly is happening in schools with technology and that's the problem with not having a policy," McAvoy said, citing students reaching graphic material on school devices, playing games, and avoiding interaction with classmates.
Cameron Hardesty, a mother of three in Albemarle County, a district of about 14,100 students, asked the board to sharply reduce or eliminate screen use for young children, criticizing her local school's reliance on devices and its use of technology breaks for kindergartners. Early, frequent device use, she argued, leaves children "more anxious, more distracted, unable to sustain attention long enough to develop the critical thinking skills they need."
Amber Rhodes, a former middle school teacher who spent her final year as an innovative learning coach helping colleagues integrate technology into lessons, now leads work at The Balance Project. She described wanting to return to what her early years in the classroom looked like: "that good pedagogical practice of building relationships with the students, hands-on students exploring, all of those things that we know are good teaching, but the devices have sort of gotten in the way."
Where it goes next, and what is still unsettled
Sen. Schyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, confirmed plans to introduce a model policy on educational technology when the General Assembly convenes in January. The stated goal is to open a conversation about purposeful use, and about when minimizing technology is appropriate, as artificial intelligence, social media, and video have moved further into daily life.
The proposal builds on ground Virginia has already covered. A 2024 executive order pushed the state toward phone-free schools, and lawmakers subsequently gave local school boards more control over implementation. This effort extends the question from personal phones to district-issued devices and software.
"The research is very new," Rhodes said, adding that Virginia leaders will have to weigh the evidence that exists against what is actually happening in classrooms.
Virginia is not moving alone. North Carolina districts have gone as far as restricting phones during instruction, Los Angeles is limiting screen time for more than 400,000 students, Maryland districts faced a deadline for AI policies, and the platforms themselves are being pulled in, with Meta's recent settlement adding a school-hours notification blackout for teen accounts. What Virginia would add is the piece most states have skipped: a state-level gate on the software districts buy. For the wider disagreement, see why parents and teachers do not agree on banning phones in schools.
Sources
Virginia Mercury: As student well-being concerns grow, Va. advocates push for stricter school tech guidelines
School and district enrollment figures from allk12's analysis of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data, 2024-25.
