On Oct. 17, the fifth-grade teachers at North Star Academy in Redwood City sent an email to parents.
“Students should not be wearing Apple watches in class,” the teachers wrote to parents, the second such warning of the school year. “We have had a number of instances where students have been texting or messaging other students in their class or in another class during class time. It has become a real distraction.”
In Ruth Snyder’s fifth grade class, 20 out of 30 students regularly wear a smartwatch, most of which are Apple Watches.
“They’ll be fiddling with their watch instead of listening or doing what I’m asking them to do,” Ms. Snyder said. “We decided that we were going to have the same policy for Apple Watches that we did for cell phones, which is, it has to be off and in your backpack.”
Ms. Snyder is the longest serving teacher at North Star Academy, a 3-8 public school in Redwood City. She started teaching there in 1998.
“I’ve taught 5th, 6th, 3rd, and 4th. But mostly 5th grade. 5th grade is my sweet spot. I love 5th grade,” Ms. Snyder said. North Star’s elementary portion was ranked the number one public school in California in 2021.
Yet, the new watches have become a real challenge. To demonstrate, Snyder glanced down at her arm and pretended to be consumed by something on her wrist.
“It’s a quiet distraction,” she said.
Despite the email to parents, a tsunami warning on Dec. 5 set off a cacophony of Apple Watches across one of North Star’s fifth-grade classes, one student recalled, prompting a rebuke from the teacher.
The problem is becoming an increasing one across elementary schools as smartwatches become more ubiquitous.
Just 13% of teens owned a smartwatch in 2021, according to the most recent data available from the Pew Research Center. However, the devices seem to be growing in popularity among children, according to anecdotes from educators like Ms. Snyder, as well as companies that track consumer trends on electronic device usage, according to Education Week. Counterpoint Research, for instance, predicted recently that the child-targeted smartwatch market will increase by double digits annually— which means many more smartwatches will find their way onto the wrists of children like Ms. Snyder’s students.
This rise poses a conflict not just for teachers, but parents. Dr. Mercedes Kwiatkowski, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, has a daughter, Hannah, in Ms. Snyder’s class this year. She says Hannah has “desperately” been asking for an Apple Watch. Her older son, a 7th grader, received an Apple Watch in 6th grade.
“He had started riding his bike to school, and then to the community center after school, and we felt like there had been times when we needed to tell him to come home, or if he’d gone to a friend’s house,” Kwiatkowski said. “We weren’t sure if he made it, so then I was like, texting the parent.”
Kwiatkowski said her and her husband are “debating” whether to get Hannah an Apple Watch. “Our son is, like, the only one of his friends without a phone, so we’re, like, intentionally behind.”
Recent changes to the Apple Watch make it so children do not need a phone to call and text people on the watch. Simultaneously, it maintains safety features like Find My Friends so parents can still track their child.
“The watch is not easy to use, like, you really can only use it to call or text,” Kwiatkowski said. “There’s a nice Apple Pay feature, so if he needs a snack, we can send him money. But the phones are much easier to be on and distracted socially.”
Kwiatkoski explained the rationale behind why parents, like herself, are giving their kids Apple Watches. “I think it’s twofold. One, especially in our area, kids are really busy and they have like a million sports activities, clubs,” Kwiatkowski said. “So I think one main reason is easier communication.” Kwiatkowski said the second reason is “tracking”.
Apple offers a mode called Schooltime for students who wear the Apple Watch to school. Schooltime blocks notifications and disables the use of all apps on a child’s Apple Watch. Parents can choose the days and times when Schooltime is active—for example, if the child has school from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., the parent can set their watch to go into Schooltime automatically during that time.
“A lot of my work as a psychiatrist is around screen time, helping families navigate screen time, you know, developing phone contracts,” Kwiatkowski said. “I’ve had parents send their kids to summer camps where they can’t have phones and the kids come back and they’re like, ‘I was afraid to come home because I feel so good without my phone, but I know I won’t be able to resist it when I come back.’”
Despite the Schooltime feature, North Star’s current policy is still that Apple Watches must be turned off and in backpacks during school hours.
On Sept. 24, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 3216, the Phone-Free School Act, to require every school district, charter school and county office of education to adopt a policy limiting or prohibiting the use of smartphones by July 1, 2026. It is unclear how this policy extends to smartwatch use in classrooms.
Yondr is already adapting its pouches to accommodate both a smartphone and a watch. Yondr produces pouches for cell phone storage that include a locking mechanism, preventing students from accessing their devices during school hours. San Mateo High School now requires the use of Yondr pouches for all students.
A ten-minute drive from North Star Academy, Karina Cobos is grappling with the same questions as Kwiatkowski. Her son, Patricio, is a fifth grader at La Entrada Middle School in Menlo Park.
“So, I have 21 people in my class, maybe about eight or 10 of them have Apple Watches,” Patricio said. Patricio does not have an Apple Watch, but Cobos is planning to get him one for either Christmas or his upcoming birthday.
“[An Apple Watch] would be good to just, like, if, if I’m like out playing with my friends, I could just like, and if I go to like, I don’t know, Starbucks or something,” Patricio said. “Cause sometimes I just get confused and they don’t know where I am. And then they can just like track my location there and they know exactly where I am.”
“And also just to like, listen to music while I’m playing basketball,” Patricio added.
Patricio explained how he sees his peers use their Apple Watches in class. “I think the wallpaper one is a bit of a distraction,” Patricio said. The ability to change the watch wallpaper is one of the few interactive features available to students.
Cobos said she feels pressure to give Patricio an Apple Watch because other kids have them. “If one has it, the other one, the friend wants it. And then soon you have two,” Cobos said. “And then those other people are seeing that those two have them.”
“Suddenly, us as parents… it’s in our mind it’s, it’s like, okay, well, other kids have him and you know, you’re imagining your kid being the only one not being the same or being cool or whatever,” Cobos said.
In addition to the Schooltime feature, Apple developed a “Downtime” mode to “support responsible usage of the device”, according to a press release. The Downtime feature of Screen Time extends to Apple Watch, with the child receiving a reminder five minutes before it begins.
