Parents say: Bring back pencil and paper

A small but growing number of parents are opting their children out of using school-issued Chromebooks and IPads, writes Tyler Kingkade for NBC News. They cite "concerns about distractions and access to inappropriate content."

Parents "point to research showing that students who used computers at school performed worse academically and that information is better retained when read on paper," he writes. They don't believe using today's devices will prepare students to use future technology.

“I want them to be taught through humans,” said Julie Frumin, who lives in a Los Angeles suburb. “I want the teachers to teach my kids — I think they know best.”

After some resistance, the school agreed. Her children get print-outs of assignments, writes Kingkade. " Instead of playing games on their laptops during free time, they read books."

"Computers are now ubiquitous in K-12 education," he writes. Nearly 9 in 10 public schools provide a device for each middle and high school student, as do more than 4 in 5 elementary schools.

Students spend too much time on screens, says David Stein, a math teacher in Montgomery County, Maryland. It's time to think what's essential and what isn't.

The local PTA wants the district to create a way for parents to request "non-screen alternatives" for their children.

Kaitlan Finn started a parent group in her suburban Chicago school district that's lobbying to let students keep Chromebooks at school rather than take them home, she told Kingkade. “Screen use feels like tobacco use used to be,” Finn said. “You know, kids used to have rooms they could smoke in at school before they realized how bad it was years ago. I feel like my kids are being forced to smoke cigarettes during the school day, but then they’re also sending a pack of cigarettes home with them too.”

Fresno Unified wants elementary students to bring their school-issued laptops back to the classroom, reports Lasherica Thornton for EdSource.

It's partly a financial decision: It costs too much to keep replacing and repairing the devices. In addition, teachers and parents said students weren't using the laptops to complete assignments at home.

Schools in Sweden are limiting screen time and bringing back books -- physical books. In Britain, the Conservatives propose letting students opt out of screen-based homework.