Washington Township families are upset with the direction the school district is taking regarding its technology policy for middle schoolers, which will now send Chromebooks home with seventh and eighth graders.
Previously, the districts’ sixth, seventh and eighth graders had access to Chromebooks stored in individual classrooms and students were not expected to carry the devices around all day or take them home.
Parents have created a petition with over 100 signatures asking for a pause to the 1:1 rollout or to allow families to opt out, but the district has been pushing forward with handing out devices anyway.
This change is frustrating to some parents who say the rollout of the new policy has been unclear and messy but also does not align with their desire to limit technology in their children’s learning environments.
“There was no parent engagement, no conversations and it's in direct opposition to what we’ve been championing for the last two years in our district,” said Lindsay Kusy, parent of a seventh grader in Washington Township.
At Northview Middle School, where Kusy’s children go, she said the school leaders have actively been pushing for less technology use during the school day and have placed more emphasis on in-person interactions.
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The district said the change is meant to increase students’ access to digital tools “to account for an increasing emphasis on digital resources within our curriculum,” according to an email sent to parents in July.
Washington Township leadership also pointed to the state’s increased priorities around STEM education, new testing requirements and the district’s commitment to science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, or STEAM education.
Move away from more Edtech in classrooms
Most school districts across the state and country have implemented 1:1 technology policies ever since the COVID-19 pandemic sent kids home for weeks to do virtual learning.
Some Marion County districts have even gone further and are embracing more use of AI technologies in the classroom.
But Washington Township parents say the district has been moving away from using more technology in the classrooms and during school time. At Northview, for example, cellphones are not allowed during the school day and students are not allowed to use Chromebooks in the lunchroom.
Kusy, who has volunteered at Northview in the last three years, said she’s seen a significant difference in the emotional intelligence of the students after the pullback of technology use.
“A lot of these things you see about kids not knowing how to talk to each other anymore or not knowing how to engage with each other, well, our kids are,” Kusy told IndyStar. “Our kids are because they don’t have Chromebooks all day. They’re not taking them to lunch and they’re not walking through the hallways with them.”
Concerns over security and safety
Brooke DeRam, whose son was at Northview when the school previously had a 1:1 Chromebook policy, said he would have trouble focusing in class and would often play games on his laptop.
The district says that access to non-educational websites, social media and entertainment platforms will be blocked from the Chromebooks, but DeRam says the security blocks won’t stop the kids for long.
“Every week there is a new game coming out and a new way to break through IT’s security barriers,” DeRam told IndyStar.
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Parents are also worried about their kids having access to inappropriate material since they can access YouTube during school hours.
Washington Township said it would be using a third-party monitoring service, Bark Alerts, to screen students' usage of the Chromebook during after-hours or weekends. The devices would also be automatically turned off every evening from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
“But middle schoolers are getting home at five o'clock off the bus, so you’ve got five hours of them being able to do whatever they want on that computer,” DeRam said.
Washington Township parents and students are also asked to sign a "responsible use agreement," and an FAQ was sent to parents on the 1:1 rollout on Sunday, Aug. 3, about three days after the first day of school. Some parents say this information was sent out too late and, in some cases, their child was already bringing home the Chromebook.
Move away from tech increased testing scores
Michele Lugosch, who has an eighth grader at Northview, says she still feels like she’s not been given an answer on why the district is pursuing this change in the first place, especially when the school’s testing scores have been improving in recent years.
Northview’s ILEARN scores in ELA have improved from 32% proficient in 2022 to 42% proficient in 2025, and in math, the school improved from 13.6% in 2022 to close to 40% proficient now.
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“I think we’re moving in the wrong direction,” Lugosch told IndyStar. “I think that test scores have been going up and I don’t think that this is the way to teach our children the fundamentals.”
This change in technology use is especially confusing to Lugosch when the state has moved to ban cellphones and other “portable wireless devices” from schools. However, the law does allow exceptions for educational purposes.
Parents are also worried that teachers will be strained even further in the classroom if they now must monitor what students are doing on their Chromebooks while teaching.
Washington Township said teachers would be trained in using classroom management software, Securely Classroom, which will allow for real-time surveillance of students' activities. The district also stressed that the policy doesn’t mean teachers must use Chromebooks in every lesson and can decide when to use the technology.
Uncertainty remains over the cost of 1:1
One reason parents were given for the change was that providing 1:1 Chromebooks for the older students would be cheaper than providing more carts of Chromebooks for specific classes.
Washington Township did not respond to questions asking how much it has cost the district to roll out its 1:1 Chromebook policy or if the policy is saving the district money.
When Washington Township’s neighboring district, Indianapolis Public Schools, rolled out its 1:1 policy in 2020, it cost around $16.5 million to buy 20,000 Chromebooks, 12,000 iPads, and 7,000 wireless hotspots.
If the Chromebooks are damaged or lost, Washington Township families would be responsible for paying for the repairs or replacement.
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Those costs could range from $20-$80 to repair things like a broken trackpad or battery charger, or they could be replacing the entire device, according to the Washington Township student handbook.
“I can’t say I am going to be on board with paying for a device that we didn’t even agree to purchase in the first place,” Lugosch said.
This could be a financial strain for many in the district, which has around 46% of its student population qualify for free and reduced lunch.
Now, Lugosch and other parents would like the district to provide an opt-out option for those who do not want the Chromebooks to be brought home, as well as a return to the cart-based model during the school day.
Kusy and the other parents plan to bring their concerns to the school board at their next regular meeting on Aug. 13.
Contact IndyStar K-12 education reporter Caroline Beck at 317-618-5807 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter (X): @CarolineB_Indy.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Parents oppose 1:1 Chromebook rollout in Washington Township schools
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