Burbio School Tracker 11/20: Double Take

1. Burbio's Signals Tracker monitors district discussions nationwide. With the recent wave of state legislation addressing instructional screen time, this week we examined hundreds of recent discussions on device use. While it's too early to draw broad conclusions about trends, we want to highlight developments that reflect how districts are addressing some of these issues:

• Setting numerical limits on screen time: Farmington Municipal Schools, NM, is considering a policy prohibiting individual device use during regular instruction in PreK–1 and limiting use to 20 minutes daily in grades 2–3 and 30 minutes in grades 4–5, with exceptions for assessments and accommodations.

• Reducing one-to-one devices in early grades: Vestal Central SD, NY, ended its pandemic-era practice of providing individual devices to kindergarten and first-grade students and now retains devices for occasional instructional use.

• Restricting devices outside school hours: South Hunterdon Regional SD, NJ, keeps fifth- and sixth-grade Chromebooks at school overnight and shuts down seventh- and eighth-grade devices at 9:30 p.m.
• Changing classroom technology practices: Tigard-Tualatin SD, OR, is implementing recommendations to remove gamified features from educational apps, limit K–1 iPads to assessments and specific instructional needs, and establish grade-level lists of approved apps and websites.
• Prioritizing teacher-led instruction: Morgan County Schools, TN, reviewed a policy establishing in-person, teacher-led instruction as the primary approach in K–5, with digital devices used only when there is a clear educational benefit.

2. We will take our final look at the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of School System Finances, which reports revenue, spending and debt for public school systems nationwide by comparing per-pupil spending in states ranked six through ten in population.

Among the ten largest districts in each state, per-pupil spending at the highest-spending district is approximately double that of the lowest in Georgia and Ohio, compared with differences of roughly 43%–44% in Illinois, Michigan, and North Carolina. First we look at Illinois:

Next up is Ohio:

Further below, we finish with Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan.

3. Burbio’s MCP is designed to integrate Burbio data into clients' existing AI tools and workflows, allowing them to combine our data with other information, ask questions, and generate customized reports. In the following example, we combined Construction Tracker with enrollment trends to identify districts doing construction projects where enrollment has grown in each of the past three years. Here are examples from five states:

• Berkeley County Schools, WV: The Board approved an architecture firm for its 2026 bond projects, which include a new middle school and a Workforce Development/CTE Center.
• Lee County School District, FL: The district adopted a five-year facilities plan that includes a new high school, three elementary schools, two middle schools, and a PK-8 school.
• Clarksville-Montgomery County School System, TN: District leadership briefed the Board on a new elementary school, and the Board requested a future discussion of the school’s prototype and design.
• Northwest ISD, TX: The Board is considering the purchase of 14.6 acres for future school sites, along with a construction manager contract for an early college high school project.
• Papillion La Vista Community Schools, NE: The district plans to commission an enrollment study that will include the potential timing of a third high school.

4. Here is the per-pupil spending analysis for states ranked eight through ten in population. In Georgia, Atlanta spends twice as much as Forsyth per student:

Next up is North Carolina:

Finally, Michigan: