As educators in the nation's second-largest district prepare for the new limits on classroom screen time, some teachers say it will be a difficult adjustment.
This year brings a new challenge for Armaghan Khan and many other teachers in the nation’s second-largest school district: Ban screen time for younger students, and significantly limit it for older kids.
“This is going to be a big impact for me,” says Khan, who’s spent his career in the Los Angeles Unified School District. “I would say about 75% of our work was on some kind of screen-based activity.”
As a science teacher, Khan has embraced technology — not only because his students at Johnnie L. Cochran Middle School can perform large-scale experiments on their laptops, like a car crash simulator to understand things like Newtonian forces, but also because it’s his best option.
“My hands are kind of tied in terms of just what I can offer,” he says. “We have a lab space, but we do not have a lab budget.”
Many districts and a growing number of states have passed similar limits this year, but the rapid roll out in Los Angeles for teachers and the district’s more than 400,000 students is unique. The school board passed the resolution this spring: Starting this week, 1st grade and under will have no screen time at all. In November, the rest of elementary school classes will have limits, with middle and high school students following later in the year.
The new rules are a departure for LAUSD, which only a few years ago was a national leader in bringing technology into the classroom. Khan said he was surprised by the new policy and subsequent lack of guidance: “I don’t feel like I’m being set up for success.”
A rapid rollout
Pia Sadaqatmal, the district’s new chief academic officer who is overseeing the new screen time rules, says she knows it’s not flawless: “There is no perfect solution on how to roll out to a school district the size of ours.”
She encourages teachers to see this year as a transition year and not expect overnight improvements. “We have one of the first school districts in the nation to adopt a policy at this scale,” she says. “We know that we are going to be learning along the way at each phase.”
Students will have software on their school-issued tablets or computers that will keep track of the amount of screen time used per week. The software will not shut the device off once the limit is reached; instead, it collects data for the district to comb through at the end of the year. The hope is that the data gathered will help the district make tweaks to the rule and better understand what worked this year and what didn’t.
Certain things are exempt, like virtual textbooks, but teachers are still trying to figure out where everything else fits.
Filling the gaps
“I have more questions than I do sort of immediate … concerns around it,” says Kirti Baranwal, a teacher librarian at William Jefferson Clinton Middle School. This is her 28th year with the school district.
“I think generally screen time limits are good,” she says.
Last year, the district banned cell phones, a growing standard for many states around the country. So Baranwal did a lesson on screen addiction and asked her students to report their own screen time. Many came back with 8 or 10 hours a day — even with the ban in place.
“And I was like, when are you sleeping?”
Research shows that for kids who don’t have the resources to play on sports teams or attend arts programs, their time outside of school is occupied, often by their phone. Baranwal, like Khan in his science classroom, thinks just unplugging or turning screens off ends up leaving holes.
We know that we don’t want students on phones, Baranwal says. But then, “what is it that we want kids doing?”
With the school year just beginning, the Los Angeles school district is trying to figure that out.
Corrections:
August 11, 2026
An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the Los Angeles Unified School District would install software that tracks screen time on students’ personal tablets or computers. The software will only be on school-issued devices.
Transcript:
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
School begins tomorrow in the country’s second-largest school district, with one big difference from past years- there are sweeping new limits on screen time for students. The new rule in the Los Angeles school district comes just a few years after a major push there to bring technology into the classroom. NPR’s Sequoia Carrillo talked to LA educators about how they’re dealing with the shake-up.
SEQUOIA CARRILLO, BYLINE: Armaghan Khan is heading back to school for the eighth time as a middle school science teacher.
ARMAGHAN KHAN: The beginning of every year has its own sort of anxiety attached to it, but I’m always excited.
CARRILLO: This year brings a new kind of challenge for him and his colleagues at Cochran Middle School. They’re going old-school – turning off the computers and putting away screens.
KHAN: This is going to be a big impact for me. As a science teacher, technology is kind of the backbone of my curriculum.
CARRILLO: While they were on summer vacation, the Los Angeles Unified School District passed a resolution to limit screen time for all of its students. It’s part of a nationwide discussion in states and school districts about how much time students spend looking at devices. Many districts in some states have passed similar limits this year, but the rapid rollout in LA for its more than 400,000 students is unique. Starting this week, first grade and under will have no screen time, and starting in November, the rest of elementary school will have limits, with middle and high school students following later in the year.
KHAN: I would say about 75% of our work was on some kind of screen-based activity.
CARRILLO: Not only because his students can perform large-scale experiments on their laptops, like a car crash simulator to understand things like Newtonian forces but, also, it’s because it’s his best option. He has a space for in-person experiments, but no budget for them.
KHAN: I don’t feel like I’m being set up for success.
PIA SADAQATMAL: We know that there’s no perfect solution in how to roll out to a school district the size of ours, right?
CARRILLO: That’s the district’s chief academic officer, Pia Sadaqatmal. She’s overseeing the screen time change and says this year is a transition year.
SADAQATMAL: We have one of the first school districts in the nation to adopt a policy at this scale. So we know that we are going to be learning along the way at each phase and incorporating those learnings as we roll out the next group of students.
CARRILLO: Students will have software on their personal tablets or computers that will keep track of the amount of screen time used per week. Certain things are exempt, like virtual textbooks, but teachers are still trying to figure out where everything else fits.
KIRTI BARANWAL: I have more questions than I do, sort of, immediate concerns around it.
CARRILLO: That’s Kirti Baranwal, a longtime librarian at Clinton Middle School.
BARANWAL: I think, generally, screen time limits are good, right? Like, we just don’t want kids on screens all the time.
CARRILLO: Last year, the district banned cellphones, a growing standard for many states around the country. So Baranwal did a lesson on screen addiction and asked her students to report their own screen time. Many came back with eight or 10 hours a day, even with the ban in place.
BARANWAL: Well, I was like, when are you sleeping? Like, what is happening?
CARRILLO: She says for kids who don’t have the resources to play on sports teams or attend arts programs, their time outside of school is occupied often by their phone. She, like Kahn and his science classroom, thinks just cutting things out only ends up leaving holes.
BARANWAL: Like, OK. We don’t want kids on phones. What is it that we want kids doing?
CARRILLO: The Los Angeles school district is trying to figure that out.
Sequoia Carrillo, NPR News, Los Angeles.
(SOUNDBITE OF INSTUPENDO’S “COMFORT CHAIN”)
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