The school year begins in LA with one big change: limited screen time

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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."

Pia Sadaqatmal, the district's new chief academic officer who is overseeing the new screen time rules, says she knows it's not flawless.