Pupils: technology-based materials: school-issued electronic devices.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source does not provide information on the enforcement of rules and penalties for non-compliance.

Rules for School-issued Electronic Devices

This law sets rules about when schools can send home electronic devices and creates guidelines for their safe use.

What This Bill Does

• Starting in the 2027–28 school year, it stops schools from requiring kindergarten students to take home school-issued electronic devices unless allowed by local education agencies.
• Requires the State Department of Education to create model policies for using these devices safely and post them online before July 1, 2027.
• Allows schools to establish a 'Wait Until 8th' program that encourages students to wait until they are in the 8th grade to use social media.

Who It Names or Affects

• Kindergarten and transitional kindergarten students
• School districts, county offices of education, and charter schools

Terms To Know

technology-based materials

Learning tools that need electronic devices to work properly.

school-issued electronic device

A device given by a school for educational use, like laptops or tablets.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if schools do not follow the rules about sending home devices.
• It is unclear how strictly local education agencies will enforce taking home electronic devices.

Official Summary Text

SB 1128, as amended, Stern.
Pupils:
use of social media.
technology-based materials: school-issued electronic devices.
Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district, when adopting instructional materials for use in school, to include relevant technology-based materials, defined for these purposes to mean basic or supplemental instructional materials that are designed for use by pupils and teachers as learning resources and that require the availability of electronic equipment in order to be used as a learning resource, and including the electronic equipment required to make use of those materials used by pupils and teachers as a learning resource, including, but not limited to, laptop computers and devices that provide internet access. Existing law prohibits a school official from requiring a pupil to purchase any instructional materials for the pupil’s use in the school, except as provided.
Commencing with the 2027–28 school year, this bill would prohibit a school district, county office of education, or charter school from requiring a pupil in kindergarten, including a pupil in transitional kindergarten, to take home a school-issued electronic device, as defined, except that a local educational agency may authorize those pupils to take home a school-issued electronic device.
This bill would require the State Department of Education, on or before July 1, 2027, to develop and post on its internet website model policies for the age-appropriate use of school-issued electronic devices in school and to take into consideration when developing those policies, among other things, developmentally appropriate screen exposure time.
Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district, a county board of education, and the governing body of a charter school to adopt a policy to limit or prohibit the use by its pupils of social media, as defined, while the pupils are at a schoolsite or while the pupils are under the supervision and control of an employee or employees of that school district, county office of education, or charter school, as provided.
This bill would expressly authorize the governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school to establish a “Wait Until 8
th
“ program to encourage parents and pupils to refrain from social media use until at least grade 8.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF