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Bill

SB 350

Enacting the age-appropriate school device act to establish safety standards and requirements for the use of school-issued devices in certain grade levels and authorizing parents to opt students out of certain uses of such devices.

2025-2026 Regular Session

Kansas bill establishes grade-level device safety standards for school-issued technology and lets parents opt students out of certain uses.

Died in Committee
#schools
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Bill Summary · SB 350

Legislative bill overview

SB 350 establishes safety standards and usage requirements for school-issued devices (such as laptops and tablets) across specific grade levels in Kansas schools. The bill creates an opt-out mechanism allowing parents to withdraw their students from certain device uses while maintaining age-appropriate guidelines for technology in educational settings.

Why is this important

School-issued devices are now central to K-12 education, raising legitimate concerns about screen time, data privacy, digital citizenship, and developmental appropriateness. This bill attempts to balance educational technology benefits with parental rights and student safety—issues affecting hundreds of thousands of Kansas students and families navigating increasingly digital classrooms.

Potential points of contention

  • Implementation burden: Schools may face compliance costs and administrative complexity in establishing differentiated standards across grade levels while managing opt-outs
  • Defining "age-appropriate": Disagreement over what constitutes appropriate device usage and restrictions for different ages (elementary vs. middle vs. high school)
  • Opt-out scope ambiguity: Unclear whether opt-outs allow full device exemption or only restrict specific uses; broader exemptions could disadvantage opted-out students academically
  • Device necessity vs. parental control: Tension between schools' pedagogical needs for technology integration and parents' desire to limit student screen exposure and data collection

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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