Edward Hilton
Chief Technology Officer
How Tahoe Truckee USD turned screen time anxiety into community trust
When a parent asked for a screen-free track, one California CTO didn't dismiss the concern. He turned on Securly Reveal, Securly's screen time reporting tool, and let seven months of data tell the story.
Edward Hilton, Chief Technology Officer
Tahoe Truckee Unified School District, Truckee, CA
District overview
-
4,200 Students, TK–12 -
11 School sites across
720 sq miles -
7 months Reveal data collected
(Nov 2025 – May 2026)
Challenge
A parent asked for a screen-free track. Edward listened, and then went looking for the data.
A parent at one of TTUSD's elementary schools made a request: create a fully screen-free track at the middle school for his daughter. He had read the articles, joined the parent groups, and was part of a growing wave of concern about what screens were doing to kids.
Edward Hilton, the district's CTO, didn't dismiss him. Instead, he invited the parent and the superintendent to visit classrooms together, because technology is an important part of how TTUSD teaches, and the district had nothing to hide.
“We saw a lot of Socratic method and direct instruction. Maybe about a quarter of the classes were using technology, and they were being creative with Canva or writing a paper with Google Docs. He was surprised, because he was expecting kids on screens every class all day long.”
The classroom visits were encouraging. But observation alone couldn't answer every question: how much time, across every class, every day, district-wide? Edward wanted data that could speak for itself.
“While I was talking to the superintendent, I said, 'Wouldn't it be great if we had real data around that?' That's when I learned about Reveal. All we had to do was turn it on.”
Solution
Securly Reveal: from assumption to proof
Edward called his Securly rep and learned that Reveal was available through Securly Filter, and since TTUSD was already a Filter customer, activating it required no additional cost. Data collection began in mid-November 2025.
“It takes me three minutes once a month. Our technology coordinators at each school site and principals have access to log in and look at the data in Reveal. You can drill down by student or classroom or teacher or grade, you can carve up the data however you want.”
Within two months, Edward had enough data to present to the Board of Education, framing his findings around the “Productivity Sandwich”: productivity tools on top, curriculum platforms in the middle, and distraction as a trace amount on the side. His summary to the board: devices are “Digital Pencils” to complete specific work, not constant companions.
The data
Seven months of data that made it undeniable
District-wide daily average screen time, Nov 2025 – May 2026
November's spike reflects end-of-trimester projects and assessments. From December through May, the district held within a 7-minute band, remarkably consistent evidence that Chromebook use is driven by instruction, not habit or passive browsing.
TTUSD made all of this data public.
Edward published a dedicated bilingual community transparency page so any parent, board member, or community member could see exactly what the data showed. As the district stated on the page: “This page provides our community with a transparent look at how digital tools are utilized across our 11 schools during the school day.” The raw CSV data was also posted in a public Google Drive folder for anyone to download and review.
What the stability actually means.
Across six full months of school, district-wide daily screen time fluctuated by just 7 minutes: from 73 minutes to 80 minutes. That near-flat line is significant: it means usage isn’t driven by individual teachers having a “screen-heavy” week, or students finding workarounds, or seasonal drift. It reflects a consistent instructional model applied across all 11 schools. The data doesn’t just show how much students use devices; it shows that the district is actually in control of how they’re used.
Year-in-review: average daily screen time by grade band
Over 25 weeks of data (December 2025 - May 2026), covering grades 1-12 across 11 schools:
The data reveals a clear developmental arc. Elementary students use devices for targeted, teacher-managed interventions. The jump at Grade 6, from 36 to 59 minutes daily, reflects the shift to secondary coursework, where students are writing, researching, and working in platforms like Google Docs and Carnegie Learning more independently. Notably, usage doesn't keep climbing: high school averages just 6 minutes more per day than middle school, suggesting the district has found a sustainable ceiling rather than a runaway trend.
Top 5 websites, district-wide (full school year 2025-26)
Not a single entertainment platform or social media site appears in the top five. Across all 11 schools and all 7 months, the top platform at every secondary school was Google Docs, and at every elementary school it was i-Ready or Lexia Core5.
Scale puts the numbers in perspective
Google Docs alone logged 3.17 million views from 2,991 unique student accounts across the school year. In a 4,200-student district that includes TK students who rarely touch devices, reaching nearly 3 in 4 students on a single productivity platform is significant. It means secondary students aren't just occasionally opening a document; Google Docs is their primary workspace, the digital equivalent of a notebook and pen.
Platform breakdown: where student screen time goes
The YouTube question
At the high school level, students averaged 27 minutes of YouTube per week, about five minutes a day, and that time was almost entirely instructional. Teachers embed short clips into Google Classroom, from chemical reactions to historical speeches to culinary arts demonstrations. YouTube is blocked entirely at the elementary level, and TikTok and Snapchat are blocked across the district.
See Securly's broader findings on YouTube use in K-12 schools: securly.com/YouTubeUsage
“YouTube was the thing this parent was most concerned about. When I did the presentation in January, I was able to look at just the YouTube use and cut the data a few different ways, and it basically turned into around five minutes a day on average per student.”
Outcomes
The anxiety didn't just decrease. It turned into pride.
The concerned parent
After meeting with the parent who approached him originally, Edward shared: “It's definitely helped him with his anxiety around what we're doing with kids.” The parent went from requesting a screen-free track to expressing pride in the district's approach.
Public transparency
Edward published a bilingual (English/Spanish) screen time transparency page, posted raw data publicly in Google Drive, and launched a “Tech Tips for Parents” series, making the district's work impossible to misrepresent.
Neighboring districts
Edward received an inquiry from a parent in the neighboring Lake Tahoe Unified School District asking about TTUSD's policies and filtering. Because of the systems in place, the response was straightforward.
The board
Edward's board presentation closed with: “We are not reacting to technology. Our students learn and create.” The data validated both the district's strategy and its story.
"When you're transparent and you have systems in place, it's really easy for me to share our policies, share my dashboard."
"You have to tell your story. If you don't tell it, other people are going to tell it for you. And it may be the wrong story, or a misconception that doesn't get the whole truth. Having the data actually made me feel more confident."
About Securly Reveal
Securly Reveal provides districts with aggregate visibility into student web activity on district devices, including screen time, top platforms, and engagement patterns by school, grade, classroom, or student. Included at no additional cost with Securly Filter, Reveal helps technology leaders move from assumption to data, supporting transparent conversations with parents, boards, and communities about how students use technology during the school day.
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