The Digital Commons: Building Values-Based Tech Policy to Partner Home and School
By Guido Sanchez The Birch Wathen Lenox School • New York, NY
The challenges of technology use among students for schools are plentiful and welldocumented. As student technology use has increased over the last two decades, it has raised new challenges around equipping students with skills to navigate them safely and healthily.
The other change that came with this is that it has blurred the boundaries between“ in school” and“ outside of school,” as numerous school handbooks and policies make clear. With clauses or entire sections about how students present themselves online falling under school jurisdiction, schools have begun to reach outside the building more and more, while at the same time families increasingly want to know what is happening inside the building.
Technology use has not only redefined how students learn, but also where school boundaries begin and end. Gone are the days when the line between home and school could be, was, or even should be drawn clearly. This shift compels us to reimagine how we partner with families to build shared values. And one of the clearest ways we do that is through policy. Partnership with parents is more paramount than ever before. Schools have always been relied on by families to partner in the teaching of social skills and values, and technology is at the center of both in this day and age.
Simultaneously, many schools have faced an all-time high in challenging or even antagonistic parent relationships, with“ pushback” or even more strained relationships seemingly emerging from all directions. One step all of our schools can take to help with this is clearly articulated, values-based policies around technology and our support— and accountability— of students.
Page 6 Fall 2025 CSEE Connections