Enacts the "Fostering Optimal Classroom Use of Screens (FOCUS) act" to limit use of internet enabled devices and prioritize non-digital teaching methods

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Andrew Gounardes says this is needed

This bill provides a comprehensive framework for distraction-free schools by promoting analog learning and testing, limiting screentime, regulating education technology (ed tech), mandating data privacy, and ensuring that school-issued devices such as desktops, laptops, and tablets are free from distracting and inappropriate apps that have little to no educational value. Known as the Fostering Optimal Classroom Use of Screens (FOCUS) Act, this bill aligns with the precedent set by New York's 2025 bell-to-bell ban for students' personal devices, which put an end to the havoc that smartphones were wreaking in classrooms through their ability to addict, distract, and impair the mental health of student users. The FOCUS Act builds upon this framework by recogniz- ing that it makes little sense for the State of New York to go through the trouble of limiting personal devices if we are then going to bring them right back in the form of school-issued devices. The time is ripe to regulate screens and ed tech in schools. Studies have linked excessive dependence on ed tech to declining academic performance, and chronic iPad use by children and adolescents rewires neural pathways so that the brain will constantly chase dopamine hits, negatively impacting a child's ability to sustain attention and tolerate frustration and boredom. Toggling between apps and browser tabs, as children and teens often do on personal devices in schools, adversely affects working memory, inhibition, and the ability to task manage, and studies show that certain forms of generative Al such as large language model chatbots risk hampering critical thinking as well as the develop- ment of linguistic and social skills in youth. Additionally, many parents remain concerned about ed tech providers' ability to comply with current and future privacy laws that restrict the retention and use of student data. The FOCUS Act thus strikes the right balance between promoting responsi- ble use of screens in an educational context and limiting screens where they do not enhance learning. It establishes a graduated framework for school-issued device access based on grade level: no access to digital devices at all for pupils in prekindergarten through grade two, access only to supervised, shared devices in a computer lab or cart model for grades three through eight, and one-to-one devices for grades nine through twelve with a caregiver's informed opt-in, with a further opt-in required before such a device can be taken home. This ensures that the youngest pupils are shielded from screens altogether and that families retain control over when and how their children begin independent device use. This bill also strengthens families' ability to understand and limit their children's use of school technology. Before each school year, schools must give caregivers a specific listing of the hardware and software pupils will use, along with a summary of the latest medical research on the effects of excessive screen time on youth and other related information. Teachers, in turn, must prioritize non-digital instruction wherever feasible, and homework for pupils in prekindergar- ten through grade six should not require the Internet or device access. For any assignment that does not inherently depend on a device to meet a learning objective, a pupil or caregiver may choose a non-digital alter- native, free from any risk of penalty or retaliation. This legislation further ensures that any device a school does issue is safe and age-appropriate. School-issued devices may not contain embedded social media, gaming, or direct messaging platforms, Al companions, or generative or conversational Al, with an exception for conversational Al used as an assistive technology for users with disabilities. Cameras are similarly banned to guard against cyberbullying and the non-consensual sharing of images. Devices and platforms are limited to collecting, retaining, or sharing (defined broadly as "processing") the min

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.