'Parents are concerned.' Norwalk Public Schools hosts community forum on rapidly evolving AI and screentime policy

While the school district says it's already setting daily screen time limits by grade level, banning access to screens during recess, and blocking access to certain sites like YouTube, it's still working on writing a full policy. Parents are concerned, and rightfully so. One of those parents is Jordan DeMarco. I want to see And think about what we're doing before we introduce something us take a beat. that we have no idea what the consequences are. He says he came to the forum because he has a first grader in the school system and a two-year-old who will eventually be there. I want to hear that they have a plan, that it's backed by some data. And if not, I want to hear that they are going to slow down. To set students up for success and not just catch up to the modern technology. And we also want to make sure that when they use tools, we know exactly why they're using them. Assistant Superintendent of Digital Learning and Innovation for the District, Ralph Valenzisi, says there are already policies in practice, like a bell-to-bell cell phone ban for grades K-8, but more research needs to be done. Everybody's confused at the moment on how we're going to approach the work with AI, so we need to make sure that we give ourselves some grace and actually put things in place to make sure that we can actually learn as everybody else is learning. Valenzisi says the district hopes to have more of a concrete policy by March of 2027 to put parents and staff at ease. I'm Justin DeVellis, News 12.