Alabama classrooms have spent the past decade filling up with screens. Now the state wants to know exactly what that has bought — and what it has cost.
Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday, July 22, signed Executive Order 745, creating the Governor’s Commission on Screen-Based Instruction, a panel charged with studying the use, risks and benefits of screens in K-12 classrooms and delivering evidence-based recommendations on how they should be used.
A Third Step in Two Years
The commission is the third move in a two-year push by the governor’s office to rein in classroom technology. The FOCUS Act, passed in 2025, banned cell phones in classrooms and required local school boards to adopt internet safety policies. This year, Ivey signed the Healthy Early Development and Screen Time Act, which limits how much screen time children in kindergarten classrooms and childcare facilities can be exposed to — a law she noted made Alabama the first state in the country to pass such a limit for its youngest learners.
“Responsible use of classroom screen time is a top priority of my administration, and while we are already making a difference by passing two signature laws to address it, we can still do more,” Ivey said. “Children’s overexposure to screens is a barrier to classroom learning and the acquisition of critical emotional and social skills. We must continue exploring the proper role of screen time in classrooms of all ages.”
The executive order’s findings point to the research behind the push: students learn foundational skills most effectively through direct, teacher-led instruction, handwriting, physical texts and sustained interaction with teachers and peers — while classroom technology, used responsibly and in moderation, may still enhance instruction and prepare students for what comes after graduation.
“Traditional classroom teaching methods emphasizing human interaction must remain the core of a child’s learning experience,” Ivey said.
A Mobile County Teacher on the Panel
State Rep. Jeana Ross will chair the commission, whose members also include Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison; State Superintendent of Education Dr. Eric Mackey; Stephanie Pettis, a Mobile County elementary school teacher; Laren Hammonds, a middle and high school teacher from Tuscaloosa; Opelika High School principal Kelli Fischer; Houston County Superintendent Brandy White; University of Alabama early childhood education professor Cailin Kerch; and workforce representative Amanda Salazar, among others.
The commission has been asked to answer three broad questions: how screen-based instruction affects student outcomes and educational value, what current practices in Alabama and other states look like, and what health or mental health risks may accompany heavy screen use. It may also recommend age- and developmentally appropriate limits.
A December Deadline, a 2027 Target
The panel must submit its final report to the governor, the Legislature and the State Board of Education by December 1. Its findings are expected to shape new legislation on screen-based instruction that could be considered during the 2027 legislative session.
For Mobile County, the stakes are practical: the district has tens of thousands of students working on district-issued devices, and one of its own elementary teachers now sits on the commission shaping what classroom screens will look like statewide. District leaders statewide will be watching the December report — whatever it recommends is likely to become the next round of classroom rules.