Betsy Tao, chair of the MCCPTA Technology Committee, is telling Montgomery County parents they never have to buy their kids a smartphone.

Tao, a Rockville mother of an eighth grader and a fourth grader, made the case in a Bethesda Magazine opinion piece published Monday, Sept. 21. She pointed to two converging forces: the "away all day" bell-to-bell phone ban Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) rolled out this fall and a Board of Education resolution directing a K-8 screen-time audit.

"Let's start by normalizing this radical idea: You never have to give your child a smartphone," Tao wrote.

Tao, who also co-leads Schools Beyond Screens MCPS and heads the Distraction Free Schools Maryland team, said her own eighth grader has never had a smartphone. She recommended landlines and basic "dumb phones" as alternatives for families who want their children reachable.

Board orders K-8 audit

The Board of Education adopted a resolution on July 16 directing MCPS to measure how much time elementary and middle school students, including those in Potomac-area clusters, spend on screens during the school day. The audit report, due no later than March 2027, must distinguish instructional from non-instructional use, assess content filters, recommend district-wide guidance on age-appropriate screen time and outline costs of any proposed changes.

"School-issued devices will tell us an awful lot about the programs that are used, the software that we use, how frequently we use it," Superintendent Thomas Taylor told The Baltimore Banner on Aug. 14, when the district announced the audit.

Chief Technology Officer Kimberly R. Fields told the Montgomery County Council's Education and Culture Committee on July 27 that the district would also review content internet filtering, as WTOP reported at the time.

Parents flag Chromebook concerns

A Montgomery County Council of PTAs survey of roughly 1,000 parents found that respondents were concerned about students spending too much time on school Chromebooks. Parents reported that children could access inappropriate content on school-issued devices and called for more textbooks and workbooks in classrooms, according to The Banner's reporting.

Device upkeep is expensive. Chromebook screen repairs alone are estimated at more than $3 million for the 2026-27 school year, with keyboard and trackpad fixes adding another $800,000.

State law adds pressure

MCPS moved ahead of a statewide mandate. Gov. Wes Moore signed the Joanne C. Benson MD Phone-Free Schools Act on May 27, requiring every Maryland public school district to adopt phone-restriction policies by the 2027-28 school year. The law also bans social media access during school hours, as CBS News Baltimore reported.

In her op-ed, Tao argued that the policy momentum should push families further. She wrote that there is "absolutely no evidence that your child will be harmed" without a smartphone, while "a growing mountain of evidence" shows harm from device dependence.

The K-8 audit report is due to the Board of Education by March 2027.