Students in Williamson County Schools might use their personal devices even less in the future.¶
During remarks at the school board’s meeting Monday evening, Superintendent Jason Golden said the district expects to further reduce student screen time during the school day, despite measures already taken to decrease it.¶
The Previous Measures
In spring 2025, the Williamson County School District created the Technology Use Committee to begin researching potential measures to address student phone use in school. Last June, the board banned most student phone use at school for K-8 students, allowing high school students to use their phones only during lunch. This came in response to requiring all public school districts to adopt policies limiting student phone use during instructional time.¶
The original policy, proposed by board member Claire Reeves, did not include phone usage during lunch and was deemed an “away for the day” model for all K-12 students. That stipulation was added after feedback from parents and students who supported it.¶
In a meeting in November, 2025, the board approved a policy requiring the district to develop a procedure to store students’ wireless communication devices during the school day for the 2026-2027 school year while allowing them to use their phones during lunch.¶
New Action
In statements made during Monday’s meeting, Golden said the district is moving toward more intentional, limited use of cell phones and Chromebooks. He also encouraged ongoing parental involvement and feedback as the board refines its policy. He mentioned a recent pivot in which the district decided to stop sending kindergarten students home with any learning technology.¶
“The kindergarten data that we saw showed that less than 10 percent of our kindergarten students were logging on to the computer on a daily basis, and of that time that they logged in, they were spending less than 15 minutes on it,” Golden said.¶
Another key parameter being discussed is ensuring educators make intentional decisions about technology use in the classroom and limit it to learning purposes. Golden mentioned he and the committee will likely recommend that the board go further than what state law requires for student phone use, saying the committee finished a large chunk of their work about a week ago.¶
“I do anticipate that our student use of devices will go down over this next year,” Golden said.¶
