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Dear Portland Public Schools families,
As a school district, our primary responsibility is to provide every student with equitable access to a high-quality education. We are also charged with ensuring that our students enjoy a learning environment conducive to steady growth and a sense of well-being and belonging.
Whenever we encounter barriers standing in the way of these goals, we work to remove them, which is why the district recently adopted a new social media use policy for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
Beginning this fall, all social media sites will be blocked on district-issued devices for K-8 students. We are moving forward with this policy for three key reasons:
- Social media is an unnecessary distraction in the classroom, interfering with learning and disrupting essential peer-to-peer interaction.
- Regular use of social media has been linked to poorer mental health outcomes for youth, particularly adolescents, according to the U.S. Surgeon General.
- Our district’s Responsible Use Policy and Administrative Directive require that we act as thoughtful, intentional, and conscientious stewards of technology in our schools and always put student needs first.
If your student is issued a district-owned device, you do not have to do anything to enable a social media blocker. Our web content filtering system will block social media websites for all K-8 students when they are using such devices, including desktop computers, laptops, Chromebooks, and iPads. This change does not impact personal devices, only those owned by the district.
We arrived at this decision after much fact-finding and deliberation. It is our hope that this change will result in a more vibrant and positive school culture for our youngest and most vulnerable students.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jon Franco, Chief of Schools
Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong, Chief Academic Officer
Jey Buno, Chief of Student Support Services
Don Wolff, Chief Technology Officer
