Legislators across the U.S. are advancing a wave of bills aimed at limiting the role of technology in classrooms, creating a new regulatory challenge for the $164 billion education-technology industry and forcing companies to mount a coordinated lobbying response.
At least 16 states are now debating legislation that would restrict how schools use digital devices and software. According to NBC News, the proposals reflect growing pressure from parents who argue that heavy reliance on laptops, tablets and online platforms is harming children’s attention spans, academic performance and well-being.
Testimony from parents and medical professionals has fueled the legislative push. At a hearing in Utah, one mother told lawmakers that school-issued laptops exposed her children to a constant stream of distractions such as games, videos and chat notifications. In Tennessee, pediatrician Dr. Nidhi Gupta warned legislators about students accessing inappropriate content and experiencing online harassment through school devices. “Enough damage has been done in the last 10 years,” Gupta told lawmakers. “We need to put education back on track.”
The legislative proposals vary widely but share a common objective: reducing students’ exposure to screens during the school day. Several bills would limit or cap daily screen time for younger students using school-issued laptops or tablets. Others would prohibit preschool and elementary students from receiving school email accounts or personal devices.
Some proposals would go further by imposing new oversight rules on educational software used in classrooms, per NBC. In Rhode Island, Utah and Vermont, lawmakers have proposed creating new state review processes to evaluate and approve educational software before schools can adopt it. Legislators in Utah and Tennessee have also suggested requiring strict internet filtering systems that block all websites until districts explicitly approve them.
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A cluster of states in the Midwest and South has focused on limiting device use by younger children. Bills introduced in Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah would cap or restrict the amount of time elementary school students spend on school-issued laptops. One Missouri proposal initially sought to limit elementary screen time to 45 minutes per day.
Missouri state Rep. Tricia Byrnes, a Republican who sponsored the bill, argued that the classroom shift toward digital learning has produced unintended consequences. “We’re finding out that none of that screen time is actually proving to be beneficial,” Byrnes said. “In fact, it’s poisoning kids’ minds.”
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The bills mark the first broad legislative challenge to a decade-long expansion of classroom technology. During that period many school districts moved to “one-to-one” programs that provided each student with a laptop or tablet and required assignments, testing and communication to occur online.
The policy shift has alarmed education-technology vendors and industry groups, which warn that sweeping limits on classroom devices could undermine digital literacy and workforce readiness. Keith Krueger, chief executive of the Consortium for School Networking, said the rapid legislative momentum has caught many in the industry off guard.
“It does keep me up at night,” Krueger told NBC. “I think some well-intentioned policymakers trying to do something are rushing so quickly that they haven’t thought through the implications.”
Industry trade associations have responded by stepping up lobbying efforts in state capitols. The Software & Information Industry Association, which represents education software companies, has sent letters to lawmakers in multiple states arguing that restrictions on classroom technology could leave students unprepared for a digital economy.
Sara Kloek, the association’s vice president of education policy, said the industry must do more to defend the value of digital learning tools. “We haven’t seen such brute force legislation before,” she said. “The ed tech industry needs to do a really good job communicating why their products work.”
Some companies and nonprofit organizations are also attempting to pre-empt regulation by developing standards for educational software. Seven education nonprofits have launched a certification initiative designed to help schools identify products that deliver measurable learning benefits.
Despite those efforts, the political momentum behind restrictions appears to be growing. Parent groups concerned about children’s mental health and academic outcomes have increasingly organized around reducing device use in schools. Supporters of the legislation say the debate is long overdue.
For the ed-tech sector, however, the legislative push signals a potentially long fight over whether and how digital technology should shape the future of American classrooms.
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