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Memphis-Shelby County Schools has quietly ended a yearslong policy of giving every student their own personal laptop or tablet.
Parents and educators at Memphis’ White Station High School were taken by surprise last month when school began without students receiving the devices they had in years past. The apparent change has caused confusion and last-minute scrambling to adjust classroom instruction.
In an Aug. 18 email obtained by Chalkbeat, White Station Principal Carrye Holland told parents that the school was shifting classroom instruction to be less “heavily based on technology” because it could no longer assign each student their own device.
“At this time, we are not able to provide devices for all students and do not anticipate being able to do so moving forward,” she wrote.
It’s unclear how many schools are being affected by the change. Although Superintendent Roderick Richmond called the district’s laptop policy unsustainable in last month’s board meeting, MSCS has not answered specific questions about how the policy change is being applied.
Richmond said in the Aug. 25 meeting that MSCS purchased enough devices to maintain the policy using COVID relief funding several years ago.
“But with the number of students that are losing, damaging computers, there’s no way we can sustain it without having a large influx of funding,” he added.
The district has over 300,000 devices on hand, spokesperson Terrica Cleaborn-Thornton wrote in an email, but it is also facing rising equipment and repair costs. Amid national pushes to dial back student access to technology and a new state law requiring clear technology policies for elementary school, the spokesperson said MSCS is being “more intentional” with digital resources.
At last month’s board meeting, Richmond said that his team would be “working closely” with principals, teachers, and parents to adjust to the change. He also said the district is looking to hire a new chief of its IT department.
Some White Station parents told Chalkbeat that they don’t mind the limits on classroom technology. Others raised concerns about online testing and access to digital materials, especially for students who do not have devices to bring from home.
“The biggest problem is we need daylight and clarity,” said Sarah Hadskey, parent of a ninth grader at White Station. “The parents don’t know what to provide, the teachers don’t know what’s coming … and nobody knows why (the device policy) was discontinued.”
Holland, the White Station principal, said in a parent group meeting last week that classrooms are mostly “returning to pencil and paper” because of the laptop policy change. She added that the shift is “not always a bad thing,” given students’ reliance on technology and AI.
But White Station parents, who preferred not to be named to protect their kids’ privacy, told Chalkbeat that classes often don’t have enough printed resources for every student. During an open house event at the end of August, one parent said she noticed that one of her ninth grader’s classes only had 20 books for over 30 students.
“At some point, it’s a hindrance,” she said. “And each teacher is allotted so many sheets of paper to print at the school … (the district) needs to increase that allotment so you don’t have teachers buying paper and buying ink at home.”
MSCS leaders said students will have access to technology to take online tests and complete virtual classwork like in years past. But Hadskey, the other ninth grade parent, said some students had to bring their own devices for an online test last week when there weren’t enough available from the school.
Hadskey said she’s concerned the change could affect state test scores during a period when MSCS is already facing increased scrutiny and accountability for academic performance.
“They’re not putting their best foot forward,” she said. “And if these numbers are being used for something like, ‘Where do we put money? (Is the state) going to take over the schools?’ There’s a real consequence to that.”
This story has been updated to include comments from Superintendent Roderick Richmond in an Aug. 25 school board meeting.
Is your school experiencing a similar digital device policy change? Reach out to share your experience.
Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.
