KUNA – The Kuna School District plans to recommend new guidance on student screen time before the end of the school year as leaders work to determine how much time students spend on computers and other devices, and what they’re doing on those devices.
The effort stems from community concerns about too much student screen time, said Kuna Teaching and Learning Director Kevin Gifford. The nearby West Ada district launched a similar initiative in August.
“The endgame ultimately is to have a district guidance document with clear goals for what we believe an appropriate balance of screen time would be,” Gifford said. In the meantime, the district has provided some immediate guidance for teachers.
Kuna’s teacher guidance
A guidance document Gifford distributed to district administrators and teachers provides three “best practices” to implement immediately:
- Ensure screen time is teacher-planned and directed to reduce “passive consumption.”
- Provide students with tech-free options during downtime.
- Collect data on how and when students use digital learning tools and applications.
The district hasn’t collected data that clearly show how much time students spend on screens, Gifford told Idaho Education News.
Still, national news coverage of instructional software i-Ready led to complaints in Kuna earlier this year, Gifford said. The new initiative to gather data and recommend new rules is, in part, to quell those concerns.
Student screen time expanded during the COVID pandemic, when the district largely moved to online learning, putting students on Chromebooks at home. Six years later, district leaders wonder if they are properly balancing screen time with other activities in school.
The district will begin measuring student device usage to create a live data report showing districtwide screen time averages.
Gifford said the goal is to gather accurate and complete data to “tell the whole story, so that we’re not just reacting to perceptions.”
Parts of the initiative start in the coming weeks. The district will guide teachers to ensure students have tech-free options during free time after completing assignments, during recess or between classes.
Parents will receive a district survey asking for their opinions on device usage, but the district hasn’t determined when that will happen.
Gifford feels the district is also getting ahead of the Legislature, where devices in schools have been a topic of discussion in recent years.
- In 2025, legislators unanimously approved a law directing school districts to limit students’ access to cellphones.
- In the 2026 session, lawmakers discussed artificial intelligence in schools but not screen time. Senate Bill 1227 directed the Idaho Department of Education to develop a framework for “responsible use” of AI in K-12 schools.
Meanwhile, some educators are evaluating whether certain students should be on computers at all.
Idaho Education Technology Association communications coordinator Will Goodman told EdNews in August that the organization plans to lobby for a ban on screens in kindergarten through third grade classrooms.
“I know our Legislature is going to be looking at this very topic this year,” Gifford told Kuna trustees at the district’s October board meeting. “It’ll be good for us to be already working toward it.”
