A parent-led community initiative

Let's get technology right — together.

Technology is one of the most powerful forces shaping our children's lives. We're a community of NYC parents trying to navigate it honestly, carefully, together.

Sign the Techlaration → Take the family survey →
Children playing together outdoors, smiling and connected

What is Techlaration?

Our kids are being reshaped — and no one asked us.

Children used to be shaped primarily by their parents, their friends, their teachers, and their community. Now their primary relationship is with their screens. The average teenager spends more than 50 hours a week on screens outside of schoolwork — more than a full-time job (Common Sense Media). No one signed up for this.

A Techlaration is a "declaration of independence" from technology as the default relationship shaping our children's lives.

Signing it says you align with six truths related to change (see sidebar), and adds your voice to the community leading change at your school. No family can achieve this alone — but we can all do it, together.

We hold these truths to be self-evident
1
Childhood is worth protecting. Technology can be enormously useful. But much of it is engineered to be almost impossible to put down — and what it crowds out is what kids need most: sleep, play, and face-to-face relationships. Protecting space for childhood takes action, not wishful thinking.
2
Home and school are one conversation, not two. When schools say it's the parents and parents say it's the schools, nothing changes. We bring evidence, lived experience, and good faith to educators — and ask them to meet us the same way.
3
We talk to each other, not about each other. We're not here to tell anyone how to parent or teach. But talking only with people who already agree with us leaves the harder work undone — the face-to-face conversation that actually makes change possible.
4
Private decisions have communal consequences. One family's choice becomes every family's environment — on the bus, at the lunch table, in the group chat. It's hard for any family to hold a norm alone. Together, we can make the healthy choice the normal one.
5
No adoption without deliberation. New tools can expand what students and teachers are able to do. They can also quietly remove the thinking, the struggle, and the human contact that learning depends on. We're asking that we weigh what they cost before they become the default.
6
Adding my name matters. These choices get made by the people who participate. Adding my name doesn't mean agreeing on every answer. It means helping my community find better answers — together, and with respect for where we disagree.
Sign the Techlaration →

Why this exists

Taking action together

Techlaration helps school communities lead change by making our private technology choices visible through an anonymous survey, and by collecting our voices for shared action. Families can find common ground by seeing where they stand, and school leaders can gain the support they need to change policy. See how change happens →

Ready to add your name?

Sign the Techlaration →

How it works

From your name to real change

01

Sign the Techlaration

Join forces with the families at your school.

02

Share your family's experience

Take the anonymous survey — anonymous, about 8 minutes.

03

See it, and spread it

As more families sign and take the survey, a clear picture of your community emerges — visible across grades, divisions, and schools. Share it, and use it to start the conversation at your school.

The family survey

Start with your family.

The family survey measures your household’s real experience — anonymously — and pools it into your school’s community picture, so a community can see itself more clearly.

Start here

The family survey

Share your family's honest experience with technology at home. Your responses count toward your school's community picture.

Take the survey →