As the first school year under House Bill 1481 comes to an end, I am here to tell you that it doesn’t matter that kids no longer have their phones in class. They’re still just as distracted as ever. If we truly want to see an improvement in modern education, it’s imperative that we also drastically limit the use of school-issued devices.
Over 90% of school districts in Texas have had a 1:1 device policy, where every student is issued a technological device, since 2020. The majority of districts distribute Chromebooks, while others prefer iPads, like Eanes ISD, but the results are all the same. The students are addicted to them and not for learning purposes.
I have been in the classroom for nearly a decade, teaching in various schools and districts in the Austin area. In my pre-phone ban years of teaching, I battled phones for students’ attention. Now I do the same with Chromebooks. The effect of devices on students is detrimental. We’ve heard for years that math and reading STAAR scores, literacy rates, and more are declining, and there’s a direct correlation with the increased use of technology in the classroom. I have spent my career teaching secondary students in schools with traditional schedules with 50-minute classes. I spend a minimum of 10 minutes per class trying to either keep students off their Chromebooks or on the correct materials, and I know I’m not the only one.
It’s true that districts have website and content filters, but as much as districts and teachers try to police what students do on their devices, the reality is that students are digital natives and can find a loophole for just about anything. On any given day, I can find about half of my students playing games, watching TikTok, or Zooming with friends, even though I personally restrict access to websites through Lightspeed, a classroom management software. I have even found kids playing first-person shooter games and using video chat sites that match users with strangers. The district’s technology department directly blocks these types of websites, but like any person in active addiction, the students find a way to their vice.
Schools have cut the budget for paper and ink, leaving teachers no choice but to conform. These cuts go directly against what neuroscientists and pedagogists preach – handwriting and physical materials are vital in the learning process.
On top of students’ screen addiction, teachers have been pushed to use technology more than ever. Schools have cut the budget for paper and ink, leaving teachers no choice but to conform. These cuts go directly against what neuroscientists and pedagogists preach – handwriting and physical materials are vital in the learning process. They are directly linked to memory retention and deeper thinking. It’s the same reason why over half of people prefer physical books over e-books, and, yes, that does include Gen Z! We’re wired for the physical world and not the digital world, so why are we forcing students without fully formed brains to learn unnaturally? The reason is that technology is more convenient for everyone. But if familiarity breeds contempt, then convenience breeds incapability.
I admit that it’s easier in many ways to teach with technology. I can assign something I didn’t have time to print before school, I don’t have to worry about losing a student’s paper, and students can’t say their dog ate their homework. At the same time, I can no longer justify the convenience of educational technology when I see the kids struggling with screen addiction and the ability to think critically in front of me. Not only is the constant screen attachment ruining their academic and intellectual growth, but it is also hindering their social development. It breaks my heart to see my students staring at their Chromebooks instead of talking with each other in class or at lunch. Students rarely even know their classmates’ names anymore because they are more invested in whatever they are doing on their devices.
Chromebooks and 1:1 device policies were a vital part of school in the COVID era, but it is past time to move on. It is not aiding our students anymore; it’s actively harming them. Bring back pencils and paper. Heck, bring back passing notes. It might be our only hope.
Hayley Bell is a middle school English Language Arts teacher in the Austin area. She was a recipient of the Eanes ISD EANESpiration Educational Impact Award in 2022 and the Austin American-Statesman’s Extraordinary Woman Award in March 2026. When Hayley is not in the classroom, she advocates for improving literacy rates in Texas and beyond.
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This article appears in June 12 • 2026.