The U.S. Office of the Surgeon General is recommending that schools limit students’ screen time to improve their focus and learning capabilities, as well as their physical and mental health.
The office—which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services—recommends schools invest in physical textbooks and put a premium on paper-and-pencil classroom assignments and curriculum materials at all grade levels—with explicit exceptions for students in special education whose individual learning plans call for the use of digital tools.
Those recommendations are at odds with much of what the White House has previously said about education technology, particularly President Donald Trump’s embrace of artificial intelligence in K-12.
HHS also endorsed “bell-to-bell bans” on student cellphone use in schools, according to the recommendations, which were released May 20.
Currently, at least 37 states and the District of Columbia limit use of cellphones during the school day, including 28 states with so-called bell-to-bell bans.
“While screen use can have some benefits, the evidence of a range of risks to children’s overall mental and physical health is mounting,” wrote Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in a statement accompanying the recommendations. He added that many of the features added to digital tools to keep users engaged lead to “addiction-like behavior.”
HHS also suggests that schools:
- Keep digital learning devices in computer labs rather than giving them to students to use all day and in many cases after school too.
- Design assignments that involve reading physical books or using paper and writing utensils “whenever possible.”
- Boost extracurriculars to “help reduce the harmful effects of screen use.” (The Spokane School District in Washington state has made this a priority.)
- Make a plan to combat cyberbullying.
At least three states—Iowa, Tennessee, and Utah—have passed legislation this year calling for schools to limit screen time, prioritize the use of non-digital tools, or both, particularly in the early elementary school years, according to Whiteboard Advisors, an education consulting organization.
There’s no conclusive research study showing that either pen-and-paper instruction or digital education tools are better at improving student learning—in part because there’s such a wide variety of ed-tech tools.
But HHS argued in a report detailing the recommendations that, despite “knowledge gaps where focused research is needed … we cannot wait for every question to be settled before acting.”
Researchers should conduct longitudinal studies on the “overall outcomes” of using technology in the classroom, as well as examine the impact of bell-to-bell bans on student cellphone use in school, HHS suggested.
Screen time recommendations at odds with President Trump’s AI advocacy
The federal screen time recommendations on education technology stand in contrast to messaging from President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on the use of artificial intelligence in schools.
Trump gave AI in education a high-profile shoutout in his State of the Union Address earlier this year. Among Melania Trump’s special guests at the speech: Everest Nevraumont, 10, a student from Alpha Schools, a network of private schools where students spend two hours a day learning reading and math using AI-powered software.
And Trump signed an executive order last year calling for infusing AI throughout K-12 education, including training teachers on how to integrate the technology into their instruction and workflows.
HHS stops short of setting recommended screen time limits for children in school.
But, outside of school, the agency recommends no screen time for children under 18 months, less than an hour for children between 18 months and six years old, and two hours for children ages 6 to 18.
Those limits should be considered in the context of a “family media plan” addressing “who can use what screen, where, when, which content, and for how long,” the report says.
The American Academy of Pediatrics moved away from recommending strict time limits on students’ technology use in favor of a new framework, released in February, that focuses on the quality of the TV, video, and online content kids are consuming.
For their part, majorities of educators say students’ use of technology for school-related purposes has a negative impact on their social-emotional skills, classroom behavior, and physical and mental health, according to a nationally representative survey of 79 district leaders, 122 principals, and 395 teachers conducted in February and March by the EdWeek Research Center.
But more than half of those surveyed said that digital tools improved student engagement and learning.
This isn’t the first time the federal government has raised alarm bells about digital tools’ impact on child mental health.
In 2023, Vivek Murthy, who served as President Joe Biden’s surgeon general, warned about the negative impact of social media platforms specifically on children’s mental health and development.
The Trump administration currently has no congressionally confirmed surgeon general. Trump’s current nominee, Nicole Saphier, a radiologist, is awaiting Senate approval.
