Kids’ Brains & Screens
for ScreenStrong Schools
How to Integrate ScreenStrong into Your School & Community
ScreenStrong uses a simple three-part framework:
- Education on screen effects
- Removal of harmful screen use
- Community Engagement to build a positive culture
Together, these create healthier kids and stronger learning environments.
“Our school is a no-phone zone!”
Screen education
that works
Rooted in Science,
Built for Classrooms
Empowering kids to overcome
screen addiction
Kids’ Brains & Screens
for ScreenStrong Schools
How to Integrate ScreenStrong into Your School & Community
ScreenStrong uses a simple three-part framework:
- Education on screen effects
- Removal of harmful screen use
- Community Engagement to build a positive culture
Together, these create healthier kids and stronger learning environments.
The Kids’ Brains & Screen Series
screens, make better choices, and strengthen family connections.
“Kids Brains & Screens is an extraordinary book. It covers so many aspects of digital life, it covers the science for each area, and it makes it all interesting, accessible, and useful to young people. The book is ideal for any school that has a digital media course, for any parent who wants to talk with their adolescent about why they have the family policies they do, and for any young person who can see that digital childhood is damaging some of their friends. The book shows ways out of the trap, ways to regain a human childhood that is full of real world fun.”
—Jonathan Haidt
Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, New York University—Stern School of Business, author of The Righteous Mind, Co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind, The Anxious Generation
Super Brain Week
Your Screen-Free Adventure!
Ready to become a true Super Brain hero?
Super Brain Week is a fun challenge where you and your friends—or even your whole class—take a break from screens to grow stronger, smarter, and happier brains.
Why take the challenge?
Screens overload your brain and steal time from the things that help you grow. Taking a break helps your brain rest, recharge, and get stronger with every day of real-life fun.
your mission
Go screen-free for a week—no video games, streaming shows, YouTube, smartphones, or tablets. Instead, choose real-world activities that build your Super Brain: play outside, try new hobbies, do creative projects, and spend more time with friends and family.
power up
Each day, you’ll learn a special mission from The Adventures of Super Brain. You’ll understand how screens can slow you down—and how simple, real-world fun helps your brain stay sharp and strong.
Super Brain Party
At the end of the week, celebrate with your friends! Create your own Super Brain Bag filled with screen-free stuff, like the Super Brain in Action activity book. Share your favorite screen-free activities—real-life fun is the best kind of fun!
Super Brain Week is a fun challenge where you and your friends—or even your whole class—take a break from screens to grow stronger, smarter, and happier brains.
Why take the challenge?
Screens overload your brain and steal time from the things that help you grow. Taking a break helps your brain rest, recharge, and get stronger with every day of real-life fun.
your mission
Go screen-free for a week—no video games, streaming shows, YouTube, smartphones, or tablets. Instead, choose real-world activities that build your Super Brain: play outside, try new hobbies, do creative projects, and spend more time with friends and family.
power up
Each day, you’ll learn a special mission from The Adventures of Super Brain. You’ll understand how screens can slow you down—and how simple, real-world fun helps your brain stay sharp and strong.
Super Brain Party
At the end of the week, celebrate with your friends! Create your own Super Brain Bag filled with screen-free stuff, like the Super Brain in Action activity book. Share your favorite screen-free activities—real-life fun is the best kind of fun!
Phone Free Schools
Using brain science education to inform and support an effective phone-free policy
Provided by ScreenStrong
The Stats
Analyzing the Impact of Phones in Schools
- Smartphones & Academics
- Smartphones & Friends
- Smartphones & Mental Health
- Smartphones & Physical Health
The Costs
of Keeping Phones in Schools
The Benefits
of a Phone-Free School
For Your Students
- Stronger Peer Connections & Communication Skills
- Improved Focus & Academic Performance
- Better Mental Health
- Healthier Social Environment
- Increased Physical Activity & School Participation
For Teachers & Staff
- Improved Grades
- Enhanced Classroom Engagement
- Reduced Cheating
- Easier Classroom Management
For Parents & Families
- Stronger Bonds
- Better Screen Habits
- Empowered Parents
- More Social Interaction
- Improved Communication Skills
- Strengthened Executive Function
- Better Focus and Higher Grades
- Reduced Stress, Anxiety, and Depression
- Increased Participation in School Activities
- Greater Classroom Engagement
- Strengthened Screen Habits and Self-Control
Don’t start from scratch.
We have your back.
Everything you need for your new phone-free policy is right here
What You Get In Our FREE Guide:
- The stats & benefits of a phone-free school
- A complete sample phone-free policy
- How to educate your students and parent community
- Letter to teachers & parents
- Sample FAQs
- Recruit volunteers to be Phone-Free School Champions
Bonus Material:
- School Assembly Slides & Talking Points
- School SCREEN Awareness Poster Series for Elementary, Middle and High
Champions
Building real connections through social activities, new hobbies, and screen-free fun!
Parents play a key role in ensuring the success of a phone-free policy. Their involvement helps reinforce healthy habits at home and school, motivating students to embrace low-tech social activities, balance, and positive change.
A grade-level Phone-Free Champion is a volunteer who supports the phone-free policy by raising awareness of its benefits and encouraging face-to-face interactions. Champions act as a bridge between parents, students, and school staff.
Each school ideally has one Lead Rep to coordinate these efforts, which could be a PTO member or a parent enthusiastic about the new policy.
Ways Phone-Free Champions Can Help:
- Advocate for the Policy: Communicate the phone-free initiative’s goals and benefits to other parents.
- Organize Workshops: Host science-based talks on the effects of screens, inviting ScreenStrong Ambassadors to present.
- Lead Non-Tech Activities: Organize game nights, picnics, and non-tech social events to foster in-person connections.
- Support Teachers: Work alongside teachers to help implement and enforce the phone-free policy.
Encourage parents to explore additional resources, like ScreenStrong’s free Connect Group, for education and support.
“After the first Friday Fun Night I organized for the class, my middle schooler woke up the next morning and excitedly said it was the most fun they’d ever had in middle school! We couldn’t wait to start planning the next one. It was such a great reminder of how much fun kids can have without screens!“
—ScreenStrong Parent Phone-Free Champion