After outcry, NJ school district adjusts computer bedtime hours

💻Deptford public schools announced plans to restrict use late at night

💻Parents and students active in school activities and jobs pushed back

💻The policy takes effect Friday

DEPTFORD — The school district has made some adjustments to its new Chromebook policy after an outcry about them being disabled late at night.

Schools Superintendent Kevin Kanauss announced restrictions would be put in place after monitoring software found that students were using their school-issued machines in the evening and in some cases "well past midnight."

Parents and students pushed back saying that they were using their Chromebooks to complete assignments in the evening after participating in school athletics and clubs.

Kanauss said Tuesday that while the district doesn't want to dictate student bedtime it has a legal, educational and ethical liablity as to how the machines are used.

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"We are more concerned with students using legitimate tools in unintended ways. For example, several students use Google Docs to chat with each other in the middle of the night," Kanauss wrote.

"To put it directly, we are not in the business of assigning bedtimes or dictating household rules; however, we absolutely do have a duty to ensure the tools we hand out are used as intended."

The new policy will take effect Friday with slightly adjusted hours that use will be restricted.

• Elementary: 9 p.m. - 6 a.m. (Initial:  8 p.m. - 6 a.m.)
• Middle school: 10 p.m. - 6 a.m.(Initial:  9 p.m. - 6 a.m.)
• High school: 11:30 p.m. - 6 a.m. (Initial:  10 p.m. - 6 a.m.)

The Deptford Township school district had an enrollment of 4,114 as of the 2022-23 academic year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

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