Omaha parents aim to limit elementary students' iPad use at school

In comments at school board meetings and letters to district leadership, the parents behind Schools Beyond Screens Omaha and Pencils Before Pixels have raised concerns about how much time students spend on their devices at school and the effectiveness of certain digital learning platforms. 

Schools Beyond Screens is a national organization that started with parents in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The second-largest district in the country, it recently released a plan to limit student screen time, including a ban on screen use for kindergarten and first grade students. 

In both the Omaha and Westside districts, each student receives a school-issued iPad beginning in kindergarten that they use during school and often take home. 

Angie Holliday-Okumu, a parent of incoming second and fourth grade students at Crestridge Elementary School involved with the recently formed Schools Beyond Screens Omaha group, said she would like to see the district show evidence that iPad use is beneficial for students. 

"There needs to be more research about how ed tech, especially in early years, impacts ADHD and learning in general," she said. 

Holliday-Okumu said the vast majority of her kids' homework is also done on their iPads, which she said makes it hard for parents to get an idea of how their student is doing in school. 

She said she is also concerned that students are finding ways to access content they aren't supposed to on their iPads. 

"There's just no way to block and really ensure their safety, especially when it's one teacher trying to monitor 20 plus kids," she said. 

Paul Vonderfecht, a parent of children who attend Westside's Sunset Hills Elementary, said he and other parents formed Pencils Before Pixels because of concerns including students receiving free time on their iPads and sometimes being able to use iPads during recess.

The use of the Epic app and IXL video games in the classroom are other concerns, as Vonderfecht said they require little effort from students and do not effectively promote learning. 

Vonderfecht said he and some of the school's other parents would like to eventually see the district's 1-to-1 device program discontinued or at least the option for parents to opt-out. 

"We're after a classroom that promotes focus and effort, or cognitive friction, and iPads do not allow for either one," he said. "It creates a classroom full of distractions and encourages swiping, so there's no effort being put forth."

Cindy Frazier, a mom of five children who have all attended Omaha Public Schools, said she worries about the impacts of increased screen use during school for her youngest child, a freshman at Central High. 

"I would love books to be brought back into the classroom, and I would love for there to be more pen to paper work done," she said. "I think that there's a lot to be said about how the brain works with your hand and uptake of information."

During an OPS board meeting, Elena O’Connell said she's concerned about the Amira app that uses AI to evaluate students' reading skills. O'Connell said the app didn't understand her third grader with a speech delay, causing her child to become extremely frustrated. 

"It was not instilling a love of reading. It was doing exactly the opposite," she said. 

O'Connell and other OPS parents said students' use of Amira and other programs like SuccessMaker and Lexia at school and as homework isn't graded but is often tied to incentives like afternoon recess. 

"We recognize that there is a big difference between educating students about technology and requiring educational technology on gamified platforms that often do not align with the current unit being taught," O'Connell said. 

Meredith Moellenbeck, whose son just finished kindergarten, said during an OPS board meeting that her son's handwriting skills regressed as he began using his school-issued iPad. She said he's also become more impatient with practicing reading, something she thinks could be tied to the way the Amira Learning app adjusts tasks if a student is struggling. 

The parents all emphasized that they appreciate and trust their children's teachers and don't want to overburden them.  

"I think there is a way to find balance," Frazier said. "I am definitely in support of helping the teachers to navigate the academic piece but also having to be aware of how that impacts our kids' brains when they have so much technology. I would like to see some kind of happy medium."

The Pencils Before Pixels group's aims are to have the school eliminate free iPad time, use of iPads during recess and end the use of Epic and IXL video games this fall, and then create a petition to push for the option to opt out of 1-to-1 devices beginning in spring 2027, Vonderfecht said. 

Parents involved with Schools Beyond Screens emphasized that they would like to see change at the district level, not just at individual schools. 

The Schools Beyond Screens Omaha group has created a petition asking the OPS district to end 1-to-1 devices for elementary students and implement other limitations to device use. 

Holliday-Okumu said OPS administration has been responsive to parents' feedback. 

"There's been some openness to it, and I really appreciate that," she said. "We want to work together with the district."