Seattle Public Schools students who log on Monday will find some of their favorite sites gone.
Starting next week, YouTube will be blocked on district devices for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Minecraft" will be blocked in every grade, except in classes where teachers use it for instruction. The district is also closing a loophole that lets students reach Google’s Gemini AI chatbot through search results. District leaders announced the changes at a special Seattle School Board meeting Wednesday.
Starting in January, the district will also stop issuing individual laptops to students in third through fifth grades. They’ll share devices from carts or labs instead, the same change SPS announced in September for kindergarten to second grade. Third to fifth grades will also get a 60-minute daily screen-time cap, following a 30-minute cap set for kindergarten to second grade. Mike Starosky, assistant superintendent of academics, called the limits guidance, not policy. He described the 60 minutes as “more of a trial run” that could be reduced.
“We, of course, wanted to get rid of YouTube the moment I got here,” said Superintendent Ben Shuldiner, who arrived in February. He said the district first checked with teachers who use it in lessons, and some limited educational use could continue.
SPS already blocks AI chatbots such as Claude and Grok on its network, said Carlos Del Valle, assistant superintendent of technology. But students found that clicking AI summary in Google search opened a Gemini chat. An update from the district’s web-filtering vendor closes that route.
The district has not banned generative AI outright. Its website lists AI tools available to students, including MagicSchool AI, Canva’s Magic Write and Adobe Firefly. Microsoft Copilot is available for staff only.
Parents who have advocated for less screen time in schools welcomed the blocks but doubted they go far enough. “I would not say that Seattle Schools are listening to us,” said Emily Cherkin, a Seattle parent and longtime critic of classroom tech. “I would say that they have realized they can’t ignore us anymore.”
Before the School Board meeting, roughly 40 to 50 parents and advocates rallied outside. Seattle Families for Intentional Tech hosted the rally, joined by the Seattle chapter of Mothers Against Media Addiction and Distraction Free Schools Washington. Concerns ranged from screen time to lost creativity, but the focus turned more and more to generative AI, said Ashley Worobec, who organized the rally for SFIT.
Speakers said they want all generative AI chatbots blocked for K-12 students until independent research shows they are safe and help kids learn. That includes chatbots built into district-approved tools.
“We have more regulations on opening a sandwich shop and providing deli meats than we do on large language models interacting in our classrooms,” said rally speaker Danica Noble, an SPS parent and former Federal Trade Commission attorney. Noble, who appears to have won a state House seat in the 32nd Legislative District this week, campaigned on tech guardrails for kids and plans to push statewide legislation when the session begins in January.
“The feds are not going to regulate it,” she said.
Parents are not the only ones with serious concerns. Starosky said in district focus groups, students said they fear their own “cognitive decline.”
Students’ major concerns include future job security, academic integrity and AI overuse. Starosky said students are asking: “Are they learning or not? And for a student to say that, that’s a vulnerable, vulnerable place to be.”
Thomas Coffee, a parent of two SPS students who also spoke at the rally, said it shows “what an absurd situation we’re in here, where the students are the ones bringing up the concerns” instead of the district getting ahead of the risks.
On Wednesday, a School Board student representative asked whether the district could turn off AI features that rewrite highlighted text in Microsoft Word. Debra Knickerbocker, SPS’ digital learning manager, said they can’t.
“If this were a textbook, and the publisher said, ‘We’re going to come to your library and we’re going to insert new things into your textbook and you can’t remove them’ … that would be absurd,” Coffee said. “But with technology, this is the norm.”
Starosky said the district’s guidance rests on child-development and education research, not “vendor marketing.” He cited groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics and Common Sense Media. Coffee and other advocates said several of those groups get funding from the tech industry. Worobec pointed to Common Sense Media’s partnerships with several Big Tech associated organizations including the Gates Foundation and the Bezos Family Foundation. (The Seattle Times Education Lab receives funding from the Gates Foundation. The Times maintains editorial control over all its coverage.)
Early in the presentation, Shuldiner argued that students need to be taught about technology rather than shielded from it. “Not to make a different kind of political point, but abstinence only does not work,” he said.
Cherkin called that argument “inexcusable.” “I think you absolutely can ban AI,” she said. “Ed Tech is just Big Tech in a sweater vest.”
Minutes after Shuldiner’s metaphor, a meeting attendee silently held up a makeshift sign stating: “Abstinence only” works for K-5, Ben!”
Board Director Liza Rankin cheered the YouTube block. “I have been asking for YouTube to be blocked since COVID,” she said at the meeting.
School Board Vice President Evan Briggs pushed back on the district’s upbeat tone about AI, saying claims about Ed Tech’s benefits feel “very based on vibes.”
“How are kids supposed to know if AI is helping them learn?” Briggs said. ”They don’t know if it’s helping them learn. I don’t know if it’s helping me.”
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