Kansas school tech policy: Board weighs acknowledgement against opt-in or opt-out

The Kansas State Board of Education is preparing to act on a policy governing instructional technology in schools during its November meeting. Board members are considering the appropriate role of technology in elementary instruction, along with questions of privacy, security, and artificial intelligence. One central question before the board is whether parents and guardians should merely acknowledge that technology will be used in schools, or whether families should be permitted to opt in or out of that use.

Several Johnson County school districts sent a joint letter to the board on Oct. 22 backing what they called Option A, which would require an annual acknowledgement from parents or guardians. The letter states that many supplemental learning resources in elementary classrooms exist only in digital form, and that at the secondary level, textbooks and course materials are delivered through district learning management systems. Kansas requires every student to maintain an Individual Plan of Study through district-approved digital platforms on district-issued devices. The majority of district, state, and national assessments are administered digitally. Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and dual and concurrent credit coursework with partner colleges and universities also rely on digital platforms.

The districts argued in the letter that an opt-out policy would create two separate versions of instruction. Students who opted out would lose access to materials, practice, and feedback available to classmates. Teachers would need to develop, maintain, and deliver two sets of lessons, materials, assignments, and assessments. The letter states districts would face additional costs to purchase, source, print, or develop non-digital instructional materials, and that equivalent non-digital resources do not currently exist in many cases.

Shawnee Mission School District Superintendent Dr. Michael Schumacher supports Option A. "To me, Option A is measured," Schumacher said. "It forces school districts to take a stand, to take some proactive steps towards district-issued technology, but it doesn't dictate exactly what they're going to do. It leaves some leeway for local control, which again, we believe strongly in." Schumacher said that designing two different lessons every day to account for students using technology and those who do not would be a major burden on staff.

Kim Whitman, who co-leads Schools Beyond Screens Shawnee Mission and the Distraction Free Schools Policy Project, said she wants research-informed policies regarding district-issued devices. "We're really asking them to focus on the independent research and to do an independent audit of how kids are using the devices," Whitman said. She said Schools Beyond Screens recently issued a letter of support on intentional technology use that gathered more than 1,000 signatures in under a month. Dana Hoffman, a parent with two children in Shawnee Mission schools and one who recently graduated, signed the letter. Hoffman said she believes policy changes are better made at the district level rather than the state level, but added that if districts do not act, the state becomes the impetus to get them to move.

Kansas House Bill 2299, signed into law by Governor Laura Kelly in March 2026, requires all Kansas public schools and accredited private schools to ban cellphone use during the school day. The 2026-2027 school year is the first under the new ban. The Shawnee Mission School District Board of Education adopted its personal electronic device policy on July 20, 2026, requiring all student devices to be powered off and stored away from the student's person in an inaccessible location during the school day.

The Kansas State Board of Education is scheduled to finalize and act on the policy in November.