Screen Sense Oak Park is a group of local parents who are concerned about technology and our kids. If you are here with the same sentiments, SSOP includes you! We are modeled on the success of Screen Sense Evanston, which was a grassroots movement in D65 last year.

Since we began on April 7, 2026, we have had wonderful momentum and an enthusiastic community response. We have connected with Distraction Free Schools and participate in the Illinois Workgroup, and also are connected with LA’s Schools Beyond Screens emerging national movement as an affiliate chapter.

Our Mission:

Screen Sense Oak Park exists because the kind of learning that builds capable, curious, resilient children is under pressure — and parents have both the right and the responsibility to protect it. We believe children should come first in their own education, ahead of corporate interests and market trends, and we hold a simple standard for District 97: Align the use of educational tools with how human learning really works. We partner with District 97 to ensure that classrooms prioritize human connection and rigorous thinking, and that every family has a meaningful voice in how their children spend their days.

Our Vision:

Real learning requires friction — the productive resistance of a hard problem, an unanswered question, a skill not yet mastered. Oak Park's schools will be places that protect that friction, where technology serves education rather than replacing the hard, meaningful work of growing up.

Our Values:

1. Children before devices
Every decision we ask District 97 to make begins with one question: is this good for children's development, or is it a convenience? When those two things are in conflict, evidence-based child development wins out. 

2. Whole-child excellence
We reject the idea that academic rigor and healthy development are in tension. The child who learns to tolerate frustration, think critically, collaborate with peers, and engage with hard ideas is also the child who will excel academically. We hold both standards simultaneously and refuse to sacrifice one for the other.

3. Evidence over enthusiasm
We do not oppose technology because it is new. We oppose its overuse because the research is clear — excessive screen time in childhood has measurable costs to cognition, attention, social development, and mental health. We expect District 97 to apply the same standard of evidence to edtech that it would apply to any other educational intervention.

4. Partnership with accountability
We pursue change through honest dialogue and good faith collaboration with District 97. We will always seek to work with the district before working against it. But partnership is not the same as deference — and we will not mistake cooperation for progress when our children's development is at stake.