Dozens of educators, researchers, medical professionals, and parents have reached out the US Education Secretary, asking that smart phones in schools be declared an "educational crisis". The effort is led by the Screen Time Action Network at Fairplay.
Child Safety Advocate Lisa Cline tells KMOX's Total Information AM, they're asking Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to follow the science, "we're talking about internet-connected devices, which distract kids in the classroom, lower the grades, make them unavailable to learn because they're checking in with social media." A detailed letter to Cardona cites multiple studies, including some showing that just having a cell phone in view in a classroom can have an impact, dropping grades as much 6%.
Cline says other studies show students are not interacting with each other during free time or lunch hours, but are instead looking at their smart phones. She adds she has anecdotal evidence from dozens of educators who say they're losing instructional time, "a science teacher in my son's high school tells me he loses 45 minutes a week to policing cell phones."
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