No More Netflix: Streaming sites will be blocked on school devices during school hours beginning in the 2020-21 school year

District Superintendent Dr. Michael Fulton announced at a Board of Education meeting on Feb. 24 that streaming media will be blocked from all student devices during school hours Monday through Friday starting in Aug. 2020.

The administrative representatives from the middle schools within the district suggested to the Curriculum Instruction Department in mid-January that they should block the streaming sites on district devices after receiving complaints from staff and parents about students spending too much time watching streaming services such as Netflix.

“If it disrupts with the learning going on in class and they can’t stay focused in class, then that’s a problem because the point is for them to be here to learn,” East principal Dr. Scott Sherman said.

Not only can these sites be a distraction to learning, but Sherman explained that when students use streaming sites on the school WiFi, they take up the bandwidth, which can cause the internet connection to slow down. In the same way that traffic builds when too many cars are on the freeway, internet speeds slow when too many people are trying to stream media.

This new restriction will impact students’ school devices, but will not be placed on the staff’s.

Fulton said at the meeting that the district will work with teachers to come up with a list of approved sites for audio and video streaming since the district understands there are academic sites that are helpful as instructional tools. 

Although no definite list of blocked sites has been released, Netflix will most likely be one of the restricted services as it’s one of the apps the district has been receiving the most complaints about, according to Fulton. Another common streaming service among students that might be blocked is Hulu. Sherman believes they could also include any sites that take up bandwidth.

Freshman Gretchen Garbe understands that streaming services cause issues students’ attention span in class, but she also thinks they can be a good thing for students to have access to. Since classes can be so stressful, it’s nice to be able to watch something in her downtime, Garbe said.

“Just being able to watch something kind of relaxes me and makes me feel more relaxed so I can focus on the next thing,” Garbe said.

After announcing the change for next year, Fulton acknowledged that not everyone will be happy about it.

“At the end of the day, all of our learning tools… are intended to support high-quality instruction that leads to every student developing a personalized learning plan that helps them become college and career ready and also helps them develop interpersonal skills they need for life success,” Fulton said at Monday’s board meeting.