Some parents across the Durango School District are pushing back on what they see as a growing reliance on screens and educational technology in the classroom.
A local parent group, La Plata County COMPASS – the Coalition of Mindful Parents Advocating for Screen Safety – has formed to question how much time students spend on school-issued devices, what they’re exposed to online and whether the technology is helping or harming learning.
The group was started by Ashley Smith, who has a second grader in the district and a soon-to-be kindergartner. Her concerns grew after a series of incidents, including a pornographic pop-up that appeared on a classroom smart-board (an electronic whiteboard) and exposure to explicit content on another child’s phone.
“I started asking more questions and realized I wasn’t alone,” Smith said. “Parents are concerned. They feel like they don’t have a good idea of how computers are being used in school.”
To gauge those concerns, Smith distributed a survey to gauge parents’ feelings about screen use in the classroom. It drew nearly 200 responses from parents and educators. About 75% said they were at least somewhat concerned about the use of educational technology.
Those conversations led Smith and another parent to formally organize COMPASS, with the goal of bringing their questions, concerns and potential policy recommendations to the Durango School District Board of Education.
And while Smith is clear that she does not want to villainize the school district, or return to “stone tablets and counting beans,” she does want a better understanding — and more say as a parent — in how technology is implemented in the place where her young children are growing up.
“Parents are really looking for community and resources to feel more supported as we navigate raising kids in a digital world,” Smith said.
The development of COMPASS mirrors a broader national conversation. School districts across the country have begun reevaluating technology use in classrooms. The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education just adopted some of the nation’s strictest technology limits in response to parent pressure.
COMPASS’ questions include: how much classroom learning relies on screens? What safeguards are in place to protect students from inappropriate content? And what evidence supports the effectiveness of digital learning tools?
Smith said students begin using individual Google Chromebooks as early as kindergarten, with personal email accounts introduced by second grade. She worries that early and frequent exposure to screens – including bright visuals and gamified learning platforms – may affect children’s development.
“Access to screens is really doing a number on rewiring those dopamine circuits,” she said. “If we get kids hooked on thinking that’s how they learn, we’re setting them up for failure to be the next generation of critical thinkers.”
She has seen that dynamic play out at home. When her second grader wants to practice math, he prefers online games over traditional pen-and-paper exercises.
According to the school district website, students are issued personal Chromebooks in middle school, with take-home privileges beginning in eighth grade.
There are limits on screen use in classrooms, according to the school district. District spokesperson Karla Sluis said daily screen time allowances are capped at 30 minutes for kindergarten, 40 minutes for first and second grades, 45 minutes for third grade, 60 minutes for fourth grade and 90 minutes for fifth grade.
Chromebook use, especially in K-2, is meant to support the individual needs of students and promote equity within the classroom, Laurie Rossback, executive director of curriculum, said in a written statement to The Durango Herald.
One of the biggest uses of screens is “What I Need time,” which allows students in the same classroom to work on math, reading or research at the same time, while receiving immediate feedback on their progress, Rossback said.
Most importantly, she said, the use of the Chromebook is not passive.
“If kids are writing and editing, and doing complex projects that require research, that’s not sitting and watching a video,” she said.
Sluis also said the only platform used in class that could be perceived as “gamified” is DreamBox Math, “which uses a reward system to motivate students as they progress through math learning.”
But the school district does acknowledge the growing national concern, she said while speaking to the Herald.
The district has started to tighten control of all tech tools, Sluis said. Recently, it shut down all non-district-approved tech tools to ensure quality and consistency and is guiding teachers to “use paper and pencil when appropriate.”
District principals will discuss a screen time framework at the upcoming principals meeting, she said.
Smith said she is not sure if the benefits of in-class technology use are all they are promoted to be. She questioned if the adoption of all of the new technology was actually leading to better educational outcomes, and pointed to the booming multimillion dollar educational technology industry that has emerged in recent years.
Companies like Apple and Google have promoted their technology as drivers of improved educational outcomes, although some research is showing that digital devices have detracted from learning, and failed to boost test scores.
Smith and other parents say they want clearer, publicly available policies outlining when and how devices are used, as well as more transparency about the role of educational technology – including artificial intelligence – in classrooms.
COMPASS plans to request parents are given a role in shaping those decisions.
Going forward, La Plata County COMPASS aims to expand its parent survey, formalize the coalition and push the district to limit Chromebooks in elementary grades, strengthen safeguards around online content and data, and make technology decisions more transparent to families.
“The next great class divide that we’re going to see is kids that were raised to critically think versus kids that were raised on screens,” Smith said.
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