Members of the Kansas State Board of Education will receive a set of recommendations from the Blue-Ribbon Task Force on Student Screen Time during their monthly meeting, Nov. 12-13, in Topeka. 

The 36-member task force, comprised of students, teachers, administrators, parents, legislators and state board members Melanie Haas and Danny Zeck, have been meeting since August. They’ve shared and discussed information to formulate state board recommendations for the following three areas: 

• Students' personal device use in school; 
• Screen time and mental health; and 
• Parental oversight of district-owned devices. 

Ava Gustin, a student at Mission Valley High School, Mission Valley USD 330, and Brian Houghton, principal at Fredonia Junior-Senior High School, Fredonia USD 484, co-chair the task force. They will present the board with a set of recommendations  to provide as guidance for school districts’ policies regarding student screen time. Board members are expected to vote on the recommendations in December. 

Board members will also receive updates on structured literacy initiatives, including an update on the work of the Blueprint for Literacy committee. This report also will include a review of the literacy training (micro-credential) created by regent institutions at the direction of the committee. 

KSDE Division of Learning Services staff will also provide updates to the board on the KESA 2.0 timeline for 2024 through 2027, the school improvement model and the creation of a toolkit that helps determine if curriculum and teaching materials align with established Kansas content standards. 

A few of the other items on the board’s November agenda include the following: 

• Appoint a state board member, a rural and an urban superintendent to the education funding task force. Established by the 2024 Kansas Legislature under Senate Bill 387, this task force will review the state’s school finance system and make recommendations to the legislature and governor for a new school finance formula by Jan. 2027, before the current formula expires on July 1, 2027. 
• Hear a brief history of Kansas’s school district organization and what impacts, if any, there have been from open enrollment that allows students who are not residents of a school district to enroll in a district of their choice.     
• Discuss what priorities the state board has for the 2025 legislative session before voting on them in December. 
• Hear a presentation from Kelly Bielefeld, superintendent of Wichita USD 259, on the advantages and challenges of the largest school district in Kansas. 

Click here for the full agenda and meeting materials.