State Representative David Steffen wants Wisconsin's youngest students learning without screens at all. The Howard Republican announced plans this week to introduce legislation banning tablets and computers from classrooms serving pre-kindergarten through second grade, with narrow exceptions carved out for testing and computer science instruction.
Steffen's proposal would prohibit students in those early grades from using tablets or computers except for circumstances such as state testing or computer science classes, according to MacIver Institute. The proposal includes those exceptions. The proposal would restrict classroom tablet and computer use.
The lawmaker plans to formally introduce the bill when legislators return to the Capitol in January, and he has said, per MacIver Institute, that it could become law in about a year. Steffen has said younger students have less to gain and more to lose from classroom screens, and he has argued that screen time during the early years compromises language skills, attention span, and math and reading outcomes.
A Union Playbook Behind a Republican Bill
What makes Steffen's push notable is where he says the idea came from. The bill mirrors the American Federation of Teachers' “Devices Down, Eyes Up, Hands-On” plan, a 10-point proposal that union president Randi Weingarten unveiled in May 2026 calling for a ban on screens and online assessments for pre-K through second grade and an end to student-facing AI in elementary schools, according to the American Federation of Teachers. The AFT is the second-largest teachers union in the country, representing 1.8 million members, and MacIver Institute reports the proposed Wisconsin plan already has buy-in from teachers' unions.
That alignment between a conservative lawmaker and a national labor union is unusual, but both sides are pointing to the same body of research on early childhood cognitive development to argue against districts' longstanding embrace of one-to-one digital device mandates in elementary schools.
Building on an Existing Phone Ban
Steffen's bill would go further than anything currently on the books in Wisconsin. Governor Tony Evers signed 2025 Wisconsin Act 42 into law in October 2025, requiring every public school district in the state to adopt policies by July 1, 2026, prohibiting student use of personal wireless devices during instructional time, according to Urban Milwaukee. That law targeted personal smartphones, not the district-issued tablets and laptops teachers use for lessons, which is the gap Steffen's proposal aims to close.
There's also a separate effort already moving through the legislature to widen the state's phone restrictions. Assembly Bill 948 would expand Wisconsin's instructional-hours phone policy into a full “bell-to-bell” prohibition covering recess, class transitions, and lunch, starting in July 2027, according to Wisconsin Examiner. That measure followed recommendations from an Assembly Speaker task force focused on youth social media risks.
Madison Parents Are Already Pushing MMSD
Steffen's statehouse proposal lands amid parallel grassroots pressure closer to home. A Madison parent group called Parent Check on Tech, part of the national coalition Schools Beyond Screens, publicly urged the Madison Metropolitan School District in August to remove Chromebooks entirely from pre-K through second-grade classrooms, citing an internal district report showing young students exceeding MMSD's own screen guidelines.
Wisconsin isn't acting alone. In Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey signed the Healthy Early Development and Screen Time Act on March 4, 2026, according to the Alabama Governor's Office. Ivey later created a statewide Commission on Screen-Based Instruction in July 2026 to examine broader K-12 technology use. Utah lawmakers also passed similar screen-ban legislation this year.
What Happens to the Hardware and the Curriculum
Beyond Wisconsin, other large districts have already moved on their own. The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted in April 2026 to restrict devices in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms, while capping daily screen time in older elementary grades.
Medical groups have supplied some of the research fueling these proposals. Some screen-time guidance for young children emphasizes limiting non-educational screen use and prioritizing real-world social interaction. The proposals reflect concerns about possible effects on language acquisition and attention spans.
Still unresolved is how Wisconsin school districts would actually execute a switch like this. The proposal would require districts to change how they use classroom screens.
