# School Technology and Parental Opt-out **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 17, 2026, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763 "2026-02-17T20:40:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/1 "2026-02-17T20:40:30Z")
I realize that this question will be _extremely_ dependent on geography and this thread might need to be moved to a different forum. How far can parents go opting their children out of using school issued devices? If a school requires students to use school issued tablets or laptops and doesn’t have alternatives how do they actually deal with parents who refuse to sign any release forms or take the devices home? What about remote instruction days; how to schools deal with students who’s won’t let log in (or who don’t have internet). Does anyone have any experience with this, from either side? > **[Parents opt kids out of school computers, insisting on pen and paper instead](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/parents-opt-kids-school-laptops-ask-pen-paper-rcna257158)** > > Parents are forming a loose network teaching one another how to get their children off school-issued Chromebooks and iPads. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/2 "2026-02-17T21:45:31Z")
I donno, and am not a parent. But can you force people to get on the internet? What if it’s not available? What, you must get Starlink? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/3 "2026-02-17T22:29:04Z")
My grandkids have school tablets. The school provides a spot everyday for those who may not have internet. And there are people who don’t. Extremely rural, poor area. The kids in my house use them mostly to get assignments and logged in on remote or sick days. I’ve seen very little actual instruction by a teacher. Certainly no AI around here, yet. I think if you lived in a no Internet home you just get your lessons the old fashioned way. Copy off the board. I have to say we get very little homework needing doing of a night, til testing time. My daughter and DIL are logged into everything so they usually know before the kids tell them what’s due. If you want a free public education provided by the state you have rules you gotta follow. They are not necessarily democratic rules. I’d prefer a less strict dress code for my grandkids. And maybe more free play. I got thru the rules at my school, my kids got thru them and I suspect this generation will too. I don’t get the concern the parent has about the little use these devices provide and amount of screen time. These kids would be glued to a screen 24 hours and not complain. Video games and TV and phones. And they’re worried about checking assignments or reading a word prompt. Nah. I’m not outraged by school tablets. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/4 "2026-02-17T22:38:39Z")
Since there’s not much better information at this point, I will tell you that my five year old son was issued a tablet and there was no indication it was something you can opt out of. I am skeptical that it’s the best thing for his learning but I don’t feel I have much choice. He doesn’t bring the tablet home. It stays at school. I’ve never actually seen it. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/5 "2026-02-17T22:40:39Z")
In higher grades you’ll see the tablet. You can link to it apparently, with your sons ID number. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/6 "2026-02-17T22:42:49Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Since there’s not much better information at this point, I will tell you that my five year old son was issued a tablet and there was no indication it was something you can opt out of. I am skeptical that it’s the best thing for his learning but I don’t feel I have much choice. Aren’t the textbooks all digital now (so that paper textbooks are not available as an alternative)? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/7 "2026-02-17T22:42:59Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I don’t get the concern the parent has about the little use these devices provide and amount of screen time. These kids would be glued to a screen 24 hours and not complain. Video games and TV and phones. And they’re worried about checking assignments or reading a word prompt. Nah. I’m not outraged by school tablets. There’s a growing body of research, to my understanding, that indicates children do not learn as effectively on a screen. It’s true of adults as well - people who read on Kindles tend to have lower comprehension than people who read paper books. There’s research showing that information collected online is not processed in the same way as it is through paper literature (see: _The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains_ for further reading.) It’s not an issue of screen time per se, so much as the screen causing inhibited learning. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/8 "2026-02-17T22:44:47Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Aren’t the textbooks all digital now (so that paper textbooks are not available as an alternative)? Probably. It’s tremendously convenient to do everything electronically. I can see the appeal. I’m just not convinced it’s the best way to learn. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/9 "2026-02-17T22:45:06Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > There’s a growing body of research, to my understanding, that indicates children do not learn as effectively on a screen. But even with that, they still need to know how to use them and be comfortable navigating them. Screens aren’t going away any time soon. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/10 "2026-02-17T22:46:01Z")
Teacher, here. Parents can opt out of students having device access. If they do, teachers have to find some way to deal with it. Which is likely not to end up in the student’s favor. But I’ve yet to see it actually happen. For instance, I usually give my homework online. I could, instead, print out a copy of the problems from online, and let a student do them on paper. But when my students do the problem online, it instantly tells them if they got it right, and lets them try again. That functionality, I can’t print out. So a student doing the homework on paper would almost certainly score lower than one using a computer, unless they’re the sort to do it once and accept whatever they got (which also isn’t good). > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Aren’t the textbooks all digital now (so that paper textbooks are not available as an alternative)? We have huge bookshelves full of paper copies of the textbooks, from the days when that was the norm. If any student wants to check out a hardcopy of the textbook for the semester, they can. About 10% of the students choose to do so. Most just go with the much more convenient electronic copy they can access online. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/11 "2026-02-17T22:49:48Z")
We use screens as tools. Shouldn’t our kids learn to as well? I mean horseback riding was important a few decades ago. Not so much anymore. This is just the next step. A kid in school now will be using a computer with more and more regularity til they graduate college. They’ll have to to keep up. I’m worried what comes next in technology for our personal use. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/12 "2026-02-17T22:50:18Z")
You think a child needs to be taught how to use a tablet? My kid figured out my phone by the time he was three. He discovered functions on my calculator I didn’t even know I had, and he also somehow learned to voice search using a search engine. These products are intentionally intuitive enough for a child to use. Now typing, yes. That has to be taught. One of the benefits of the tablet though is he can work ahead in math and reading. So it holds him back slightly less than a standard textbook curriculum would. Trade-offs, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/13 "2026-02-17T22:50:54Z")
So there are still paper versions of the textbooks? I would have thought the the recent versions would be digital only. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/14 "2026-02-17T22:55:16Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > We use screens as tools. Shouldn’t our kids learn to as well? Yes! They should. I’m not anti-technology across the board. I’m just not convinced a tablet will teach better than a textbook. There are also certain subjects where critical thinking is necessary. And we know that handwriting is processed differently by the brain than typing. It creates more neural connections. So kids need to learn in that way, too. Their own brain is a tool, too. At five years old I don’t think a tablet is critically necessary for learning. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/15 "2026-02-17T22:59:13Z")
Oh I agree. It’s not critically necessary in kinder- or 1st but it does make things easier for the school system. And they will need electronics all thru their schooling. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/16 "2026-02-17T23:01:15Z")
Fortunately the school we found for the kiddo places heavy emphasis on writing. Which is going to be really important for him when he gets into advanced mathematics. Right? Are kids doing calculus on a tablet these days? Or is it still paper and pencil at that level? I have no idea. ETA: my kid is also maybe not the standard learner. He’s learned a tremendous amount on his own from watching YouTube, for example. Which I never would have anticipated. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/17 "2026-02-17T23:08:54Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > So there are still paper versions of the textbooks? I would have thought the the recent versions would be digital only. The most recent editions, maybe. But a school is under no obligation to switch editions. > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Right? Are kids doing calculus on a tablet these days? Or is it still paper and pencil at that level? I have no idea. The AP calculus tests are administered on a computer, but submitted on paper. I’m sure that the College Board would love to switch to fully-electronic, but it just isn’t practical: You’d basically need for everyone to have something like a Wacom tablet. It’s possible, of course, to produce all of the symbols on a computer, but it’s slower and more difficult than writing. For scratch work, I find that most students seem to prefer using markers, on either a personal-sized whiteboard or on their desks. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/18 "2026-02-17T23:21:07Z")
So is “show your work” still a thing? When I was in school we got points off it we didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/19 "2026-02-17T23:37:02Z")
That’s up to the individual teacher. Some teachers require all work to be shown. I encourage it, because with work shown, I can give partial credit for a wrong answer, but a wrong answer with no work gets nothing. And I’m sure there are some teachers who never look at the work at all. ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2026, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763/20 "2026-02-18T00:24:29Z")
The problem with tablets is that all the kids in my kid’s high school (including my own kid) have the tablet sufficiently hacked so that they can spend their schooltime doing things other than the schoolwork they’re supposed to be doing. It seems to be a neverending guerrilla war – kiddo told me that the school has banned GitHub (a platform where one can manage/store/share code – really useful for coders), because kids were using it to play games, which makes me a little sad though I understand it. My kid reads webnovels. It’s OK with me because she does get her work done, but what about the old days where you had to hide the book under your desk instead? 😉 > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Aren’t the textbooks all digital now (so that paper textbooks are not available as an alternative)? My kid also often has a paper textbook as an alternative. That tends to be more true of subjects like history than subjects like math, where right now they have paper textbooks but many of the classes will be moving to digital-only in a couple of years. > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Fortunately the school we found for the kiddo places heavy emphasis on writing. Which is going to be really important for him when he gets into advanced mathematics. > > Right? Are kids doing calculus on a tablet these days? Or is it still paper and pencil at that level? I have no idea. I was under the impression that work needed to be shown for full credit on the AP Calculus exam (I can ask kiddo when I get home; @Chronos should know). My kids also take classes from Art of Problem Solving where they learn how to write up problems using the mathematical typesetting language [LaTeX](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX), which I think is adorable (I learned LaTeX decades ago but only use it rarely these days). But my kid does do scratch work on paper (older kid) or whiteboard (younger kid) before writing it up. It’s very very true that at some point in a techy/math kid’s trajectory, they will have to learn how to communicate what they’re thinking. You can be be brilliant, but if you can’t communicate that brilliance to anyone, it won’t do you any good. My older kid had a ton of struggles with this in middle school but eventually mostly seems to have figured it out, although she now has a bad habit of writing her English papers as if they are proofs. Younger kid is now working on these skills, with mixed success but definitely progress. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/school-technology-and-parental-opt-out/1027763.md?page=2)