5 Minutes, Big Impact: Make Your Voice Heard on APS Devices -- BY TUESDAY

QUICK SUMMARY: We drafted an email for the School Board because they're making decisions re: devices this week -- just personalize and send BEFORE TUESDAY! See an update, four action steps, and the email template below.

Thank you so much for supporting the “Analog as Default” and “Attention as Curriculum” petition for APS! The School Board is at a critical juncture and needs to hear directly from you NOW. While some progress has been made, APS staff’s recommendations to the School Board for Ed Tech use don’t go nearly far enough given that non-assistive device usage (a) fails to improve learning, (b) erodes attention, and (c) fuels the loneliness epidemic. APS staff have recommended the following minor changes to the school-issued device policy for School Year 2026-2027:

• Grades 1 & 2: Piloting shared iPad carts at just two elementary schools, and then shifting to shared carts the following year (2027-28) at all elementary schools.
• Grades 3 - 5: Keeping a 1:1 ratio for all students so that iPads are physically at-the-ready in all classrooms.
• Middle School: Piloting laptops at just one middle school, then planning to shift to laptops at all middle schools the following year (2027-28); this maintains a 1:1 ratio and only changes the type of device assigned (a laptop vs. an iPad).
• Requiring “purposeful use” of devices, but without any clear definition of purposeful use or mechanism for enforcing that devices are ONLY used when demonstrably better for learning than analog teaching methods.

The School Board DOES NOT have to merely accept these recommendations from APS staff. Superintendent Durán plainly said that APS has gone too far with classroom tech, yet the current staff recommendations are inadequate for a true course correction, especially in grades 6-12. Giving students the same level of access to internet-enabled devices and merely asking teachers to be “intentional” with use will largely preserve the unacceptable status quo. The School Board can go further and faster! 

PLEASE TAKE ACTION: 

1. Write to the School Board members and the Superintendent directly this week. Below you’ll find their email addresses and a letter template which includes FASTER changes that will more effectively correct this crisis.
2. Sign up to speak at the April 16 (or 30) School Board Meeting to urge the School Board to go further and faster on device policy changes!
3. Email five friends to ask them to write to the School Board!
4. Join DMV Unplugged’s coalition of parents, educators, and community members. We can help you find resources and connect with likeminded people at the local level. (To that end, DMV Unplugged will be launching an online coalition hub within a week or two - stay tuned for the link.)

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EMAILS:

 bethany.zechersutton@apsva.us

kathleen.clark2@apsva.us

zuraya.tapiahadley@apsva.us

superintendent@apsva.us

monique.bryant@apsva.us

miranda.turner@apsva.us

LETTER TEMPLATE TO COPY AND PASTE:

 Dear Members of the School Board and Dr. Durán,

[Introduce yourself + brief articulation of how school devices have impacted your child / family.]

In the wake of the 3/24 work session, I write to ask that you do the following while finalizing device policy for next year and beyond.

• Move to shared carts for grades 1 and 2 at all elementary schools.
• Explicitly put shared carts for grades 3-5 on the table for the 27-28 school year and add a pilot program for next year.
• Pilot laptop carts for any middle schools that want to participate next year, and plan for laptop carts for grades 6-8 for the 2027-28 school year. No independent research supports the 1:1 program for middle school. Fighting to hold, let alone cultivate, student attention when they’re all equipped with internet-enabled devices is futile – and it’s harming middle schoolers.
• Require analog tools in secondary Math, English, and Science classes - textbooks, books, and notebooks.
• Introduce planners across the division for secondary students to replace the dependency on devices for communication assignments and work.
• Demand an “allow list” paradigm; website-blocking whack-a-mole is a futile drain on teachers and staff. An alarming two-week snapshot of APS Lightspeed stats from last year exposed that only 42% of requested content was education-related. Youtube, which just recently was found guilty of negligence and deliberately addicting children, was the #2 most visited domain on school-issued devices.
• Precisely define when device use is justified. Platitudes about “purposeful” use leave the door wide open to interpretation and ensure that reforms will fall short. Acceptable use lists by grade--i.e. when a skill is learned better on a device--need to be crystal clear, vetted by YOU (not the IT Department), and publicly posted. If you follow independent research, the list will be short. Non-assistive Ed Tech is not "essential" for much--it’s actually de-skilling our kids.
• Create a real and supportive opt-out policy for families who don’t consent to school-issued device use. It’s unfair to have some principals rejecting these requests while other principles are (rightly) supporting them.
• Prohibit routine / daily video use in elementary schools, such as showing children videos of people reading books rather than the teacher him/herself reading a book to the classroom.

Thank you for your leadership. With the stakes as high as they are – with attention, critical thought, and wellness on the line – you risk doing too little, not too much. Please GO BIG with the changes you make, and act with the urgency these issues deserve.

Sincerely

Your name