The Mendon Upton School Committee voted Monday night to change its iPad policy after the ACLU of Massachusetts filed a formal complaint on August 15.
The complaint alleged the district’s iPad policy discriminated against students who opted for the “school use only” plan because they could not take their iPads home, while students who purchased, leased, or received an iPad through the free and reduced lunch program could take home their iPads.
District Superintendent Dr. Maruszczak said the ACLU cited case-law from 1942 where the court found that typewriters were part of the core curriculum and students needed to be provided typewriters free of charge. The ACLU views the iPad as the modern-day typewriter.
According to Dr. Maruszczak the committee’s mindset when the iPad policy was originally crafted was to give parents as many options as possible and as much flexibility.
Although Dr. Maruszczak did not agree with allegations made in the ACLU complaint he said they needed to look beyond the letter of the law, “First and foremost the heart of the matter is working with our parents and families. Therefore I believe this needs to be the lens of any decision-making.”
Dr. Maruszczak recommended the School Committee move away from the “school use only” plan and instead implement a “loaner” plan which would allow all students 24 hour, 7 day a week access to iPads during the school year. The loaner iPads will be owned by the district. All required apps will be provided and the iPads will be configured for educational purposes only.
Dr. Maruszczak noted there is a tremendous amount of misinformation out there regarding this story. The district does not want families to have the perception that any student was disadvantaged or that in the crafting of the “school use only” option there was an intent for some students to be at a disadvantage. “I don’t want to see anyone thinking that so that is my recommendation. To change this policy.”
“We need to communicate this to our parents as soon as possible,” Dr. Maruszczak said. “We need to be making a very strong, good faith effort to communicate that this is a fairly significant change in policy and give parents the opportunity to change their plan if they do see fit,” said Maruszczak.
Parents will be given the choice to move from the “lease to own” program or from the “bring your own” program to the newly implemented “loaner” program. Dr. Maruszczak also recommended parents who change over from the “lease to own” plan to the “loaner” plan be reimbursed for payments they have made to the district.
The district won’t know the full cost of the updated iPad program until after hearing from parents on what they plan to do. Dr. Maruszczak said he is confident the cost could be handled through a revolving account.
Committee member Diane Duncan who experienced both the “school use only” plan and a “take home iPad” plan said, “I honestly felt the district never did anything to disadvantage any children. All of our students went home with access.”
Member Chris Russo said, “From the beginning, in my opinion, this process has been very transparent.”
UPTON DAILY 
This is how this should have been from day one. Thank you for admitting it. Now, let’s move on. In the future, could we please not try to re-invent the wheel with our programs and instead survey others and choose somethin that we know is working successfully in comparable districts in the state? If we had done that with the iPads, this would never have become an issue.
This is a good decision. I am lucky to be able to purchase an iPad for my student, but students who cannot afford to purchase one should not be restricted to school-only access to their iPad. It does not make common sense. All students will need their iPad at home to study, do homework, etc. I’m glad this was resolved prior to the first day of school.
I applaud the program, I applaud the ACLU complaint, and I applaud the adjustment to the program. Schools should keep up with society’s technological innovations and a public education should be free to students and parents. I think the same argument about free public education should apply to sports and enrichment programs as well.