“President Trump’s proposed budget will lead to even more screen time for our nation’s children.” —Dr. Delaney Ruston, Screenagers
In the president’s plan, the Department of Education’s total budget would be slashed by $9 billion. One of the hardest hit will be after-school programs, key support for families.
More than $1.2 billion in grants for after-school programs are on the chopping block. These programs are essential for reducing time kids, and teens spend on screens and increasing academic and behavioral performance.
“The research shows that when kids are in afterschool programs, their self-confidence increases, their behavior improves and their grades go up,” says Dr. Ruston.
School-aged children spend on average 6.5 hours a day playing, watching and interacting with screens—this does not include school work.
“The growing amount of time kids and teens spend on screens each day is disturbing,” says Dr. Ruston. “There are definitive studies that correlate more screen time with lower test scores and an overall decrease in academic performance.”
Jodi Grant, Executive Director of Afterschool Alliance, knows that after school programs are an essential part of supporting families who need it the most. “The current federal investment in afterschool is modest, but it is absolutely vital to families and communities across the country, supporting afterschool for 1.6 million children. Still, for every child now in an afterschool program, two more are waiting to get in. At this time when one in five children in this country is unsupervised after the school day ends, we should be investing much more in afterschool programs, not cutting the funding we have,” says Grant.
After school programs not only provide a safe place for many low-income kids with working parents but gives these kids an enriching environment that helps them succeed in the classroom and grow emotionally. These programs fill children’s lives with activities and mentoring that replace screen time.
If these engaging programs are cut, children, especially those from lower-income households that rely on federally-funded after-school activity centers, will spend more time on devices.
As well as our weekly blog, we publish videos like this one every week on the Screenagers YouTube channel
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Learn more about showing our movies in your school or community!
Learn more about showing our movies in your school or community!
Join Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston MD for our latest Podcast
Learn more about our Screen-Free Sleep campaign at the website!
Our movie made for parents and educators of younger kids
Join Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston MD for our latest Podcast
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“President Trump’s proposed budget will lead to even more screen time for our nation’s children.” —Dr. Delaney Ruston, Screenagers
In the president’s plan, the Department of Education’s total budget would be slashed by $9 billion. One of the hardest hit will be after-school programs, key support for families.
More than $1.2 billion in grants for after-school programs are on the chopping block. These programs are essential for reducing time kids, and teens spend on screens and increasing academic and behavioral performance.
“The research shows that when kids are in afterschool programs, their self-confidence increases, their behavior improves and their grades go up,” says Dr. Ruston.
School-aged children spend on average 6.5 hours a day playing, watching and interacting with screens—this does not include school work.
“The growing amount of time kids and teens spend on screens each day is disturbing,” says Dr. Ruston. “There are definitive studies that correlate more screen time with lower test scores and an overall decrease in academic performance.”
Jodi Grant, Executive Director of Afterschool Alliance, knows that after school programs are an essential part of supporting families who need it the most. “The current federal investment in afterschool is modest, but it is absolutely vital to families and communities across the country, supporting afterschool for 1.6 million children. Still, for every child now in an afterschool program, two more are waiting to get in. At this time when one in five children in this country is unsupervised after the school day ends, we should be investing much more in afterschool programs, not cutting the funding we have,” says Grant.
After school programs not only provide a safe place for many low-income kids with working parents but gives these kids an enriching environment that helps them succeed in the classroom and grow emotionally. These programs fill children’s lives with activities and mentoring that replace screen time.
If these engaging programs are cut, children, especially those from lower-income households that rely on federally-funded after-school activity centers, will spend more time on devices.
As well as our weekly blog, we publish videos like this one every week on the Screenagers YouTube channel
Sign up here to receive the weekly Tech Talk Tuesdays newsletter from Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston MD.
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“President Trump’s proposed budget will lead to even more screen time for our nation’s children.” —Dr. Delaney Ruston, Screenagers
In the president’s plan, the Department of Education’s total budget would be slashed by $9 billion. One of the hardest hit will be after-school programs, key support for families.
More than $1.2 billion in grants for after-school programs are on the chopping block. These programs are essential for reducing time kids, and teens spend on screens and increasing academic and behavioral performance.
“The research shows that when kids are in afterschool programs, their self-confidence increases, their behavior improves and their grades go up,” says Dr. Ruston.
School-aged children spend on average 6.5 hours a day playing, watching and interacting with screens—this does not include school work.
“The growing amount of time kids and teens spend on screens each day is disturbing,” says Dr. Ruston. “There are definitive studies that correlate more screen time with lower test scores and an overall decrease in academic performance.”
Jodi Grant, Executive Director of Afterschool Alliance, knows that after school programs are an essential part of supporting families who need it the most. “The current federal investment in afterschool is modest, but it is absolutely vital to families and communities across the country, supporting afterschool for 1.6 million children. Still, for every child now in an afterschool program, two more are waiting to get in. At this time when one in five children in this country is unsupervised after the school day ends, we should be investing much more in afterschool programs, not cutting the funding we have,” says Grant.
After school programs not only provide a safe place for many low-income kids with working parents but gives these kids an enriching environment that helps them succeed in the classroom and grow emotionally. These programs fill children’s lives with activities and mentoring that replace screen time.
If these engaging programs are cut, children, especially those from lower-income households that rely on federally-funded after-school activity centers, will spend more time on devices.
As well as our weekly blog, we publish videos like this one every week on the Screenagers YouTube channel
This year, millions of students are experiencing a major shift: school days without phones, smartwatches, or other personal devices. Today we explore the wins, hurdles, and solutions helping schools succeed. We also share our resources that you can use to support technology policy changes in your schools.
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I recently sat down with middle school principal Zach at his school in Washington State. We talked about the challenges Zach and his team faced in his early years as principal when students used phones during school, and how he brought about a powerful transformation by having phones and smartwatches put away in locked pouches for the whole school day. In today’s blog, to raise awareness of the challenges, I share five real examples from Zach of the troubling ways students use phones at school to be unkind.
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It is with great pleasure that I share with you today a piece that Lisa Tabb and I did for Jonathan Haidt's (Author of The Anxious Generation) and researcher Zack Rausch's Substack blog — After Babel. In it, we discuss the rise in use of smartwatches in elementary schools and the problems they pose. There is a real cost to arming (pun intended) our kids with these devices and sending them to school. Now is the time to stop and fully address this topic and ensure that schools become smartwatch and phone-free.
READ MORE >for more like this, DR. DELANEY RUSTON'S NEW BOOK, PARENTING IN THE SCREEN AGE, IS THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR TODAY’S PARENTS. WITH INSIGHTS ON SCREEN TIME FROM RESEARCHERS, INPUT FROM KIDS & TEENS, THIS BOOK IS PACKED WITH SOLUTIONS FOR HOW TO START AND SUSTAIN PRODUCTIVE FAMILY TALKS ABOUT TECHNOLOGY AND IT’S IMPACT ON OUR MENTAL WELLBEING.
