If you were with us at last week's joint SASD/ASBSD conference, you sat through our "Pain in the App" session, the one where we covered the state of technology in schools, South Dakota law, and deepfakes. Judging by how many of you cornered us afterward, the questions didn't stop when the slides did. The most common one? "How do we actually get this in front of our students?" Our answer: a digital citizenship assembly. Here's why it belongs on your calendar this year.
The research is not comforting.
Start with what we walked through at the joint conference. Simply owning a cell phone correlates with worse reading comprehension at the elementary level, and it doesn't matter whether the child brings the phone to school or leaves it at home. Studies keep showing that having a phone merely in sight can measurably tank working memory and fluid intelligence. We are seeing state legislators regularly evaluate school law and the state of technology. The pendulum is swinging, and students are the ones caught in the middle of it.
An assembly won't fix a student's home screen-time habits overnight, but it puts the "why" in front of students directly, in their own language.
What a good assembly actually delivers:
The goal isn't to scare students off their phones. It's to help them build healthier habits with technology and understand that their online conduct follows them for life. A strong digital citizenship assembly gives students:
A clear, memorable picture of how online behavior connects to real South Dakota law and real school authority
The vocabulary to recognize bullying, harassment, and deepfake harm when they see it, and the confidence to report it
A straight answer to the question they're all quietly asking: "Can I actually get in trouble for this?"
Let's get one on your calendar.
If you want us to bring a digital citizenship assembly to your students, that's exactly the kind of work we love. Reach out to ksb@ksbschoollaw.com for more information, scheduling, and pricing.