- Utah plans to reduce technology in K-12 education with new legislative bills.
- The SAFE Act and Balance Act aim to limit screen time and ensure software safety.
- Officials cite studies linking digital distractions to lower academic performance as motivation.
SALT LAKE CITY — The state of Utah plans to transform the trajectory of K-12 education by taking a giant step backward.
Utah legislators, with the endorsement of Gov. Spencer Cox, announced a pair of bills on Tuesday to reverse the introduction of technology in public classrooms, countering a trend that appears to have stunted child learning.
The first-in-the-nation policies would sharply curtail the use of digital tools in schools, particularly in kindergarten through third grade, and would establish safety benchmarks for the kind of software programs schools can adopt.
"We have to be honest with ourselves, technology exposure is not technology education," state Rep. Doug Fiefia, R-Herriman, said. "We've allowed engagement to become a substitute for education."
The vision of Utah education presented on Tuesday by Republican officials was a return to analog-first teaching methods, where instead of handing out laptops, teachers — and parents — consider buying a printer.
What are the bills?
The Software Accountability for Education, or SAFE, Act would set a standard for approving instructional software before use, according to Fiefia, who is sponsoring the bill along with Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Draper.
If passed during the upcoming legislative session, the bill would require software vendors to meet child safety requirements, "ensuring our digital classrooms are as secure as our physical ones," Fiefia said.
Accompanying the SAFE Act, the Balance Act would again provide a statewide standard for tech in schools by significantly reducing the screen time allowed in early grades, gradually increasing exposure as students age.
It would instruct schools to eliminate non-essential screen time and to draft rules for the use of artificial intelligence, said Rep. Ariel Defay, R-Kaysville, who is sponsoring the bill with Senate Majority Whip Chris Wilson, R-Logan.
What the data says
The data seems to suggest a clear narrative.
The international PISA survey found that around two-thirds of students report being distracted by digital devices. On average, these students scored 15 percentage points lower in math than those who did not report distractions.
It is not just personal devices.
Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, an educational neuroscientist who attended Tuesday's press conference, said academic research for 60 years has shown the more time spent on computers at school, the worse students perform.
"The only thing we can track that back to is the tools we are using to teach," Horvath said. "We are stepping away from what works for learning and stepping toward what is the easiest, most convenient thing for administrators."
In their push to increase literacy in Utah, the governor and first lady Abby Cox have blamed the early introduction of technology, including in schools, as one of the largest obstacles to raising stubborn third grade reading levels.
Why Utah?
The legislative package was drafted with the Utah-based Child First Policy Center, a nonprofit started in 2025 to lobby for child-protective laws by bringing together several familiar conservative activists in the state.
"It's easier to get good legislation passed in Utah than any other state," said Utahn Melissa McKay, the policy and research director at Child First Policy Center. "You can get it passed clean here, then you can go national."
While several states have joined Utah in restricting cellphone use in classrooms, the SAFE and Balance acts will make Utah "the first state that's taking these big moves," which Horvath called "the two best policies" for students.
These bills continue Utah's streak as a national model for taking on Big Tech, starting in 2023 with restrictions on social media for minors, followed by lawsuits against Meta and TikTok, and age verification for app downloads.
The consensus among many Utah parents is that schools need to be the next location for a tech crackdown, according to Erin Longacre, a member of the Utah State Board of Education representing District 7.
"When COVID happened, we thought this was just a temporary, 'Everyone's getting Chromebooks while we have COVID because no one's at school.' And then we came back to school, and the computers stayed," Longacre said.
