Suggested Laptop Agreements for Middle School Families

Part of a building successful 1:1 program is building partnerships with the entire school community, especially parents. At The Nueva School (and possibly at your school, too), we have found that some parents may have inadvertently relinquished their parental authority when it comes to all things digital. Here's a reflection from one of our parents:

Sometimes we assume our child knows what the family standard is for laptop or computer use, but we find it extremely helpful when families explicitly talk things through so there are no misunderstandings. Pre-established limit setting and boundaries are still necessary with students today. We encourage parents to start these conversations early, so they can set the right expectations of behavior with their students, before the device reaches home. We recommend beginning over the summer and continuing the conversation throughout the school year. A written agreement posted near the computer helps your student refer back to it when he or she has a question or forgets. We highly recommend that families have these agreements between parents and students in place before school laptops come home, and to share the information with any caregivers. It is never too late to start this process.

The following document is a list of many different topics parents need to discuss with their students about how, where and when to use laptops and other computing devices at home. For example, we encourage parents to talk about a central charging area, a digital curfew, account information and setup, and avoiding digital devices in the bedroom for our middle-schoolers. We also remind parents these topics are a part of a larger ongoing conversation about computer use, so adjustments may need to be made as their students mature.

General Guidelines

Care of Laptop

Homework Time

Internet Use

Social Behavior

Email

Music and Video

Games

(NOTE: Unless your student is authorized to participate in a Game-Based Learning project, it's very likely that games are NOT allowed during class and when school is in session.)

Community

One final and important note: model the behavior you want at home.

If you have any additional rules or strategies that have worked in your family, please share them in the comment section below.

Please note this work protected under Creative Commons (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States). Please credit The Nueva School for the basis for your variant.