By Janelle Stecklein | Editor
“The policy focus has been on minutes, and that’s the wrong conversation to be having, because not all minutes are created equal. Scrolling for 10 minutes is not the same as actually interacting with a tool for learning.” - Tracy Weeks of state legislatures looking to cap screen time use in schools
High school students unlock magnetic locking pouches containing their phones after class with a newly established a phone-free policy in 2024. After the success of cellphone bans nationwide, state lawmakers are turning to legislation restricting how much time students can look at screen. (Alixel Cabrera/Utah News Dispatch)
By Robbie Sequeira
After school cellphone bans passed many statehouses with bipartisan support in recent legislative sessions, state lawmakers are turning to legislation governing how long students should spend looking at screens.
This year, four states passed laws restricting or regulating screen time for students from childcare through fifth grade.
Iowa capped digital instruction at 60 minutes per day for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, with exceptions for special education, assessments and computer science.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, at the time a senator from Oklahoma, speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on March 3, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newroom)
OPINION
By Janelle Stecklein
I can’t decide which Oklahoman should win top prize for biggest disconnect with reality.
A nurse vaccinates a child at the Latino Community Development Agency on July 9, 2026, in Oklahoma City. As vaccination rates decline nationwide, measles cases have surpassed 2025 to the highest since the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. (Photo by Courtney Bell/Oklahoma Voice)
By Tim Henderson
Measles cases this year have surpassed all of 2025 to become the worst since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000, with cases now in 44 states and the District of Columbia, according to a federal report released Friday.
President Donald Trump speaks at a roundtable event at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, July 23, 2026. The event promoted the administration’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge that seeks to cap utility prices in communities that have new data centers. (Screenshot from White House livestream)
By Amelia Twyman
President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the addition of Republican governors, legislators, utility services and tech companies into his voluntary pledge aimed at keeping data center construction and operation costs off the shoulders of American consumers.
The White House on June 11, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
By Sam Gauntt
The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee voted Friday that South Carolina should hold the party’s first primary in the 2028 presidential election cycle.
ICYMI
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