Henrico Schools sets screen time limits, prohibits digital homework for elementary students, bans YouTube access for ES and MS students

Starting this school year, elementary-schoolers in Henrico Schools will see time limits enforced on technology use in school and no online homework, according to Henrico County Public Schools' Director of Innovation Courtney Bastian.

The change represents a significant shift for a school division that pioneered school-used technology two decades ago. In 2001, Henrico Schools was the first school division in the country to award individual laptops to all high school students – a one-to-one computer initiative HCPS has continued and expanded throughout grades 1-12.

HCPS provides iPads to pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students and Chromebooks to students in grades 1-5. The division never formally instituted screen limits for students in school,  but Bastain said that the “typical” practice for early elementary-schoolers was using certain educational platforms for 15 to 20 minutes once or twice a week.

Now, teachers will be expected to limit technology use for grades pre-K to 5 according to the following guidelines: no more than 15 minutes per day for pre-k, 45 minutes per day for kindergarten, 60 minutes per day for first grade, 75 minutes per day for second grade, and 90 minutes per day for grades 3-5. 

“Across these early grades, we’re intentionally reducing and limiting technology use,” Bastain said at an Aug. 13 Henrico School Board meeting. “While ensuring that when technology is used, it is purposeful, developmentally appropriate and supports learning.”

Chromebooks and iPads also will be expected to stay at school, with elementary-schoolers now receiving all homework offline.

No screen limits have been proposed at the middle and high school levels, but Bastain said that HCPS guidelines will require technology use to be “purposeful and balanced” at secondary schools. Technology use is prohibited during lunch, recess, and class transitions for all grades.

The new expectations have been laid out in a draft “HCPS Digital Wellness Guide” for the 2026-2027 school year – a document that HCPS leaders developed during the summer through focus groups with 25 educators and parents as well as the latest research from the American Pediatric Association.

Educators will receive training on the guide this week, Bastain said, and it will be released to students and families during the first week of school.

Along with the screen time limits, HCPS will also remove YouTube access on school-issued devices for elementary- and middle-schoolers, while high-school laptops will have the “highest instructional restriction setting” for YouTube under Google. Roblox will not be permitted for any grade level and Minecraft Education will be limited to students in approved courses or clubs.

 'I don't believe the answer is less technology'

The new restrictions come after months of growing pushback from many HCPS parents concerned about “excessive screen time” in Henrico schools.

More than 1,200 parents and community members, most from schools in Western Henrico, have signed a petition urging HCPS to adopt screen time limits for each grade level and phase out the one-to-one laptops in elementary school in favor of computer labs.

The petition also makes another request – completely eliminate digital devices at school for students in grades pre-k through 2.

“Our daughter is about to join Lakeside Elementary for kindergarten, and it feels as though all of the pediatric advice we’ve received to keep screens at minimum, and all of the work we’ve put in at home to not make screens and devices central to our day and learning, is being undone,” wrote Morgan Wainscott on the school board’s Aug. 13 online public forum. “I think we all know we live in a world now where devices are inevitable, but I’d love to delay it as long as possible for our young children so that they can embrace being children.”

Henrico School Board Chair Madison Irving (Three Chopt District), who has been the most outspoken school board member on limiting technology use, said that although he was initially behind the movement to eliminate devices for pre-k to 2, he realized that the change would put a significant strain on teachers.

“If we just told teachers over the summer in those grades, ‘Oh, you can’t use a computer anymore,’ we would have a revolt on our hands,” Irving said “I think part of this is being cognizant about the fact that people have done things for a long period of time, and it takes time to change things.”

At the Aug. 13 meeting, school board members said the new Digital Wellness Guide was a “great foundational start” and a “good middle ground” for the division. But several board members said that the focus should not be on limiting technology use in HCPS, but instead promoting “purposeful” and structured technology use.

“I support reducing unnecessary screen time, but I do not want less technology to become the goal,” said Fairfield District representative Ryan Young. “The goal should always be better technology use. The right technology for the right purpose at the right age for the right amount of time. . . technology should enhance students’ thinking and learning.”

Varina District representative Alicia Atkins said that she was concerned about how reducing school-issued devices could widen equity gaps between students who have access to technology and Internet at home versus those who do not, as well as negatively affect English Learner and exceptional education students who rely heavier on technology.

“A policy that really is designed to promote balance could unintentionally widen the digital divide and leave our most vulnerable students behind real quick,” Atkins said. “For [some] students, the division-issued device may be their primary or only reliable access point to educational technology.”

But Irving said that he believes overreliance on technology has impacted all groups of students, regardless of socioeconomic status.

“There's a lot of research that shows that screens actually harm our most vulnerable students,” he said. “I think that there's this assumption that removing [screens] benefits a certain class of students versus another, but I don't think that's actually bore out in the reality that we inhabit.”

HCPS staffers will continue to develop the guide and gather focus groups of parents and educators that meet quarterly, said Bastain. School board members also asked HCPS staff to consider looking into screen time limits for middle and high schools.

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.