From the Superintendent
Personal Technology in Grades K-4
August 21, 2024
Dear Winnetka K-4 Families,
While the commonality of students with access to personal technology (cell/smart phones, airpods/earbuds, smartwatches, etc.) has grown substantially over the last decade, reports from staff and parents with concerns about the distracting and even addictive nature of devices like these on campus has become difficult to ignore in the years following the pandemic. In a survey given to Winnetka Public Schools staff members in June 2024, 57% of respondents reported having to address the distracting use of personal technology in the classroom either at least once a week or even daily. Similarly, 56% of 4th-8th grade students surveyed on the same topic in June of 2024 reported that their classmates are distracted by personal technology in the classroom at least once a week or even daily.
Similarly, research indicating the dangerous impact on children and teens with regular and frequent access to personal technology has become abundant and accessible to staff and parents, raising questions about what can be done at school to establish limitations and help reduce the negative impact of these devices on young children. The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Haidt, garnered a strong national response from readers in the last year, with this text subsequently circulated through both the Winnetka staff and family community. Haidt’s extensive research illustrates how the reality of growing up in this era of technology “has interfered with children's social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism.” (https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/book)
I wanted to make you aware of changes to our protocol regarding student personal technology on our campuses. In previous school years, students have not been allowed to use personal technology during the school day; however, we recognize that the consistency of enforcement of that rule is the key to keeping it from being a distraction in our classrooms. Last night, the Board approved a new system to manage personal technology in our middle schools, effective at the start of the 2024/2025 school year. Personal technology is defined as any device brought from home such as a smartphone, smartwatch and/or airpods/earbuds. We will be making our middle schools a personal-technology-free space to improve teaching and learning using a program called Yondr. Yondr has been implemented in thousands of schools across 27 countries to facilitate an engaged learning environment.
While our K-4 schools will not be utilizing Yondr Pouches, the rule regarding personal technology on campus applies at all of our school sites and will be enforced. Students are not to engage with personal technology during instructional hours and will be subject to disciplinary consequences for using personal technology including but not limited to parents reclaiming devices in the main office, and/or loss of privileges.
Please review the communications linked below that have been shared with Skokie and Washburne families earlier today, which outline the protocol we will have in place in our middle schools this year.
The success of this initiative will rely on our shared efforts to enforce the priority of preserving our educational environments across all grade levels. We know this change may be significant at first, but are hopeful that it will make a positive impact on the lives of both our students and staff.
Most Sincerely,
Dr. Kelly Tess
Superintendent of Schools
