The start to the 2026–27 school year in Larkspur-Corte Madera School District (LCMSD) looked a bit different than prior years. The first two weeks were device free in the K-8 district, which serves about 1,200 students in the Bay Area. Each grade level received six lessons focused on digital citizenship and wellness created by Common Sense Media. Educators focused on creating a positive classroom climate and culture, setting expectations for technology use and how to work and engage with one another.
The response from students, parents and staff was “overwhelmingly positive,” said LCMSD Superintendent Brett Geithman.
“This isn’t something that we dreamt up over the summer and decided to do,” Geithman said. “It’s been a multi-year process that involves stakeholder voice and input and meaningful participation, as well as taking a look at research.”
Around 2017–18, Geithman said the district published its technology scope and sequence encompassing the essential technology skills taught at each grade level. Shortly after, the education technology boom resulting from pandemic-related school closures and the nationwide shift to online learning, and the following widescale embrace of artificial intelligence (AI), rendered the plan outdated.
Flash forward to Jan. 21, 2026. The district’s board of trustees discussed LCMSD’s new draft Technology Scope and Sequence. A technology task force was formed to provide additional stakeholder input and support the district’s ongoing review of technology use. The district also partnered with Hanover Research (a global research and analytics firm) to conduct a qualitative research project focused on technology use and perceptions among LCMSD students, parents and staff to better understand their experiences with technology, including areas of strength, concern and opportunity.
Immediate changes to tech use
At its Aug. 20 meeting, the board relied on these findings and aligned recommendations to make several immediate changes, including the tech-free start to the school year and districtwide lessons during the first eight days of school on digital literacy and well-being. Additional changes included dropping first-graders from i-Ready Assessment participation, utilizing fewer devices to promote collaboration among students rather than maintaining a 1:1 student-iPad ratio, and discontinuing digital components of homework.
Geithman noted that if a student needs some extra help on something, they could access a tech tool if they needed to, but it’s not a requirement.
“It’s important to understand how to use technology and also balance that with wellness. I’m not just talking about tech tools, but instructional strategies, curriculum, our overall school environment, culture and climate — how do those contribute to actualizing positive student outcomes?” he said. “We aren’t saying technology’s good, technology is bad. We’re not saying we need to limit it to whatever, X minutes a day. It’s more about saying technology should be used for intentional purposes. The fact is, whether we like it or not, students need to know how to access and navigate tech tools. You also have to have these prerequisite critical-thinking skills. So, how are we providing that in intentional ways?”
Additionally, it became clear to the district that it needed to rectify staff and parent notions of how students were utilizing technology, how students were actually doing so, and when lessons on safe and proper use should be taking place.
For example, focus group data on parent and teacher perception of how much AI elementary students were using showed that between 5 and 10 percent of adults were under the impression that younger students didn’t use AI much, if at all, Geithman said. Meanwhile, about one third of students in grades 3-5 said they use AI to help explain and understand concepts they were learning in school.
Similarly, he said there were far more parents and staff who reported believing there was a higher number of middle schoolers who used AI to complete their homework for them than the rate of middle schoolers who admitted to doing so.
Next steps
Looking ahead, LCMSD will use the information gathered to partner with the Marin County Office of Education to examine policy, guidelines and opportunities for collaboration.
“When we think about partnering with the county, we’re really taking a look at what are some staff and student guidelines, and what are some larger governance policies or practices we should consider?” Geithman said. “And then what is a reasonable scope and sequence to teach tech skills, particularly looking in the realm of AI? When should we start introducing that? And there’s critical thinking skills that need to be developed before a student even engages in AI.
“And in terms of the big next steps with the district, number one is a framework,” he continued. “So, whenever there’s an edtech tool that’s being considered, what are the criteria that we’re evaluating it through? And then if it is selected, how do we evaluate that and determine is it doing what it said it would do?”
In some ways, these conversations are already taking place without an updated framework. For instance, many curricular options available to local educational agencies necessarily tether teachers to edtech for curriculum use. When LCMSD was looking to adopt a new English language arts curriculum at the beginning of the 2024–25 school year, Geithman said the district made a point to consider how publishers used tech and questioned if it was actually necessary. The district is doing the same now as it looks into adopting a new math curriculum, he said.
These decisions stemmed from teacher input, further highlighted the need to meaningfully engage stakeholders, Geithman noted. The district has utilized this approach to craft policy around school safety, equitable grading practices and more.
“One thing that’s really important to take into consideration is it’s not one-size-fits-all. You have to pay attention to context,” he said. “And so, our mixed-methods approach to addressing problems of practice, I think it’s something that builds a lot of trust in our community because they know that we take this seriously and they know that they have a voice and they also know that we’re going to bring in research. People really want to get involved in our task force, which dives into the data even more for leadership teams within the district.”
