Newsletter #08 July 2026
Hello Friends!
Summer is in full swing and we are enjoying some time in the sun and away from our computers (as much as we can!)
There has been so much happening it can be hard to take a step back and put the screen down which is one of the great ironies of our work. We are all doing our best to strike a balance (and we know that resonates with many of you) and make sure we’re having connective face-to-face time with our kids and grandkids, with our friends, and with each other!
There is always going to be work to do here but there is only a small window of time when you can go pick raspberries right off the bush and enjoy them still warm from the sun. So we are heartily encouraging you all to go pick a berry or two and feel the sun on your face.
We’ve been on an events hiatus for a little bit with those raspberries in mind and are excited to announce our first summer events coming around the corner.
You can find us at the King farmers market on this Sunday, July 5th and the Wholesome Family Festival on Sunday, August 9th.
We also are looking forward to debuting our full events calendar for the rest of the calendar year very soon. From back-to-school coffee meet-ups to trolley trips and talks - we have a lot of pots on the stove and they are all full of yummy stuff.
Our programming wouldn’t be possible without your input and participation, we want to facilitate spaces that bridge the gap in your life and connect you with resources and community. Our book club is one of the best examples of how input can help shape what we offer. With that in mind, we would love your feedback! What book do you want to be reading in our next book club? Tell us here! And join us at our last book club for Michaeleen Doucleff’s Dopamine Kids on July 17th from 10-11:30am PST to discuss the epilogue and what’s next. You can RSVP here!
We also have a wonderful initiative to share with you all from our collaborators over at the Distraction Free Schools Policy Project. Join us for a day or for all five and register below!
The UnPluggEd Project is a collaborative national initiative from Smartphone Free Childhood US and Distraction Free Schools Policy Project that encourages schools and families across the country to embrace and lean into human connections and away from the distractions of technology. We invite families, administrators, educators, legislators to join for 1 to 5 days of leaning into human connections free of technology distractions!
Get UnPluggEd: October 5-9, 2026
To get more information and to register, click HERE
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Learn more at the DFSPP Community of Practice (COP) Call. The COP calls are an invaluable way to stay in the loop nationally on how these conversations around screens in schools are playing out from coast-to-coast.
We are also very excited to share a sneak peak at our new t-shirts! From PTA meetings to the school pick up line, we hope our t-shirt will be a well-worn item in your closet. Interested in some for your coalition or just for you? Give us a shout at hello@orunplugged.org and we can get some shirts in your hands.
Big Deal Nationally:
June 23 has been declared National Social Media Victims Remembrance Day to honor the hundreds of young people who have lost their lives to the greed of Big Tech companies.
Additionally, a new bill is on the move - the KIDS Act. Thank you to Laura Marquez-Garrett for breaking down this information for us and helping make it digestible.
Want to read the bill in its entirety? Check it out here.
Over the weekend, the house dropped a 115-page bill called the KIDS Act, and it is a bill for safety in name only. Passage of the KIDS Act in the House (which contains a toothless version of KOSA) will enable one of tech’s greatest allies in the Senate to get an ineffective and dangerous version of KOSA through Congress. We cannot let that happen.
Please consider supporting the ParentRISE letter urging Congress to vote NO on the current House KIDS Act package by letting your representative know where you stand. You can do that through this link which will help you find your representative and send the letter for you.
Big Deal Locally:
Here is a link to June’s town hall - What's Next in EdTech, Social Media, and A.I with Sen. Lisa Reynolds, Rep. Emerson Levy, Rep. April Dobson, and Rep. Kim Wallan (AKA the Mom Mob)? The Mom Mob covers everything from codifying Oregon’s bell-to-bell cellphone ban to regulating AI in schools. It’s a must-watch.
There are also two more in-person town halls with Sen. Reynolds on July 16th (Cedar Mills) and 17th (Cathedral Park).
While events have been paused we have been directing that energy into the wild world of legislation! OR Unplugged co-founder Kathy Masarie has been taking Salem by storm and had this to share with us about her legislative escapade: Click here for our debrief on Mr. Smith (AKA Dr. Kathy) goes to Washington (AKA Salem).
Legislators OR Unplugged met in June, 2026 -
Please contact any or all of these legislators about your concerns about protecting kids from harms of screens and example bills to consider. They are formulating what bills to submit in the fall, NOW.
Sen. Reynolds’ chief of staff: Kelsey McCauley (36th District, Reynolds is the Chair of the Senate Early Childhood Committee)
Rep. Dobson and her chief of staff: Dylan Sheldon (39th District, Dobson is the Vice Chair of the House Education Committee)
Sen. Drazan (26th District) and her staff: Audrey Traaen
Sen. Robinson (2nd District, on the Senate Education Committee)
Rep. Nguyen (38th District)
Rep. Ruiz (50th District, on the Ways and Means Committee)
Rep. Wagner’s staff: McKenzie Worthington (19th District, Wagner is the Senate Majority Leader).
Rep. McIntire (56th District and Vice Chair of House Education Committee)
Rep. Fragala (8th District and former teacher in the Eugene area, on House Education Committee)
Rep. Hudson (49th District and Chair of the House Education Committee)
Sen. Blouin Gelser’s chief of staff: Maia Powloski (8th District, Blouin Gelser is on the Senate Early Childhood Committee)
We also encourage you to sign our Letter of Legislative Support to speak up for the changes you want made!
Beaverton - Over in Beaverton, coalition members have been pounding the pavement and having meetings aplenty! From school board members (most of whom are in support of their policy recommendations) to Mayor Lacey Beaty, who is a BSD parent herself. The BSD Safe Tech Coalition is making things happen. Their next big meeting is with new BSD superintendent Dr. Anthony Smith today, his first day in office. We can’t wait to hear how it went. Are you in the BSD and want to get connected? Give Nataliya a shout here.
Bend-La Pine - Bend La Pine is launching a chapter of Schools Beyond Screens ("Schools Beyond Screens Bend-La Pine") to shift from their one-time sign-on letter campaign last winter/spring to a more permanent advocacy organization. This is a super exciting shift and with that shift comes new leadership: Megan Bowerman, Whitney Morgan, Gianna Roscoe, and Konnie Handschuch.
Their efforts to advocate for a pause in the AI rollout in district classrooms until there is independent evidence that it is effective, safe and developmentally appropriate were also highlighted in this national article in The Guardian last week.
Want to get involved with the new chapter of Schools Beyond Screens Bend-La Pine? You can reach out to Natalie Houston here.
Portland - There have been huge developments in Portland since our last newsletter. Through their fierce advocacy and unrelenting work, Schools Beyond Screens Portland has helped usher in an amendment to the PPS budget that puts a pause on all AI contracts until there is a comprehensive policy in place. There is still work to be done, but this pause sets a precedent for other districts. In the PPS system and want to take action? Get involved with Schools Beyond Screens Portland in their WhatsApp group here, their Facebook group here, and their Four Norms group (under the Balance Project umbrella) here.
Tigard/Tualatin - Here’s what’s been happening with the TTSD Screen Learning Review:
Crystal Weston attended Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath’s presentation and shared key takeaways with the TTSD Board.
The TTSD Board agreed to establish a district work group, led by Assistant Superintendent Patterson.
Patterson hosted three parent listening sessions to gather community input (now complete).
Last week, the work group - composed of five parents and district leadership - held the first of three planned meetings.
The group’s charge is to develop recommendations for the superintendent by August to inform potential policy changes this fall.
Topics under consideration include:
Limiting K–2 screen use to required assessments only
Prohibiting screens as rewards or free-choice activities
Moving from 1:1 devices toward a tech cart model
Shifting from default take-home devices to a checkout model
Removing YouTube access on student devices
Establishing screen time limits by grade band
Increasing parent transparency around student data collection and privacy
Provide an opt-out choice for parents who do not want devices coming home at all
Are you in the TTSD and want to get involved? Connect with the TTSD Safe Tech Advocates here.
What are you getting up to in your coalitions? What projects are on the docket? What changes are you making? Tell us here and we can feature you in our August newsletter.
Kathy’s Pick: Free Play and Mental Health: What We Know, What We Don’t by YeJin Park Roberts and Jonathan Haidt
Kathy says - I selected this article because more than anything I hope you will all be inspired to play with your kids and get in touch with the part of you that loves to play, like you did as a kid. Fully present, with joy and connection with what is alive in you. leaving your troubles behind. I can get that way best by riding my bike with good friend Deb and hanging outside with my 5 grandkids, who are constantly moving somewhere to do something.
Jody’s Pick: US groups urge investigation into child safety and spending on Roblox by Shiona McCallum
Jody says - We join Fairplay and the National Center for Online Sexual Exploitation to urge the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Roblox for putting kids at risk and exploiting them for profit. Roblox is wildly popular with young people, but it’s not just a game - it’s a business designed to make money by keeping kids hooked. It does this by rewarding children for staying online and confusing them with virtual currencies. The harms don’t stop there. Roblox also exposes kids to dangerous people and content, and it subjects Black and LGBTQ+ youth to disproportionate harm. The following article reviews the pending Roblox lawsuit by FairPlay and the NCOSE.
Megan’s Pick: We Remade a 1990s Video Shop for the Smartphone Era
Megan says - Here's the latest hilarious PSA from Smartphone Free Childhood! It takes place in a 90's video rental store, but with a 2026 twist. Smartphone Free Childhood does an amazing job educating people about screens with fun and humor. Also, this video made me so nostalgic for the video stores of the 80's and 90's. Screen time had so much friction back then - you had to go to the store, wander the aisles and put so much intention into deciding what you would watch that evening. It felt like a special occasion thing, not an every day thing. I hope this PSA gets as many views as their last one!
Simcha’s Pick: What technology takes from us – and how to take it back (particularly the section titled “Gathering”) by Rebecca Solnit
Simcha says - It’s sometimes challenging to articulate exactly what feels lost when we hand over so much of ourselves to tech and the never-ending drive for "efficiency". I really enjoyed Solnit’s take on slowing down and the importance of doing. So much of our lives are spent in processes, from cooking to growing to honing a skill or a craft. I want for a world where there is less urgency and more time for those processes in their entirety. Days when I can take the longer meandering route to work on foot and see what is changing in peoples’ yards from season-to-season feel so much more fulfilling than the days where I get where I’m going in the most efficient and timely way possible. What gets lost along the way when we prioritize optimization above all else? What is one thing you can slow down this week?
We are beset with the ideology of maximizing having while minimizing doing. This has long been capitalism’s narrative and is now also technology’s. It is an ideology that steals from us relationships and connections and eventually our selves. I want to defend these things we are urged to abandon.
In keeping with our new how-to section, this month we have a play-by-play on the Brick by Megan Orton. The Brick retails for $59 and can be used for an entire household (on both iOS and Android) so there is no need to purchase more than one. Are you a little more tech-savvy and want a project? We also are loving this tutorial on how to DIY a Brick.
Megan says:
As a parent, I know how important it is for me to model healthy screen habits for my son, but I will freely admit I used to struggle with this. I can be a bit of a news junkie. Trying to stick to good screen habits with willpower alone would work for a week or two, but some big news event would inevitably get me scrolling again.
I wasn’t able to fix my own relationship with tech until I discovered some great products that have allowed me to fight tech with tech. One of the products I find most helpful is called Brick. It’s a small, secondary device that lets me create modes on my phone. With Brick, I have “work mode” which eliminates everything distracting, but still allows the tools I need to work. I also have “family” mode that limits my phone to just texting, calling and maps. And when I unBrick, my phone reverts back to having everything on it. It’s so simple - you just tap your phone to the Brick to switch back and forth. You can also set a schedule to automatically switch back and forth for you. I had been coveting a Light Phone to keep my phone from being so distracting, but I was deterred by the Light Phone’s price. I also worried that I might need something that didn’t exist on the Light Phone. Brick allows me to turn the phone I already have into a Light Phone whenever I want. Because Brick has a setting called “strict mode”, it also seems like it would work really well as a parental control option. My teenage son has agreed to test Brick’s strength as a parental control tool for me. We’ve Bricked his phone while he’s home from college for the summer, and he’s trying as hard as he can to get around it. I’ll keep you posted! In the meantime, if anyone reading the ORU newsletter has tried to use Brick for parental controls, reach out and let us know how it worked!
OR Unplugged is a non-profit organization run almost entirely by volunteers. Your donations and volunteer time both support creating & distributing resources, putting on events, doing outreach, facilitating workshops, and much much more. You can help us show up for our community and build a better future for our kids. Any support is welcome and appreciated. You can donate here and learn more about volunteering here.
Liz Marlia-Stein (of the Oregon Public Education Network) leaves us with a lovely quote from Anne Frank to round out our newsletter this month:
How lovely to think that no one need wait a moment; we can start now, start slowly changing the world! How lovely that everyone, great and small, can make their contribution toward introducing justice straightaway...And you can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!
Comments, queries, or concerns? You can reach us 24/7 (practically) at hello@orunplugged.org
Warmly and with gratitude,
the OR Unplugged team
Kathy, Jody, Megan, & Simcha
