For about a decade, Spokane Public Schools (SPS) saw a steady decline in student engagement—a decline that manifested itself as chronic absenteeism or lack of classroom participation. And while multiple factors contributed to that disengagement, “one that regularly comes to the forefront of the conversation is the amount of time that kids are spending on personal devices,” says SPS Superintendent Dr. Adam Swinyard. “We know these devices are incredibly stimulating and highly addictive in nature. The research is showing us that kids aren't just spending a couple of hours a day on them, but six, seven, even eight hours a day.”

He’s right. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, U.S. kids between the ages of 8 and 18 spend an average of 7.5 hours per day watching or using screens. And all that screen time may come with a host of adverse effects—not just lower grades in school, but also trouble sleeping, decreased physical activity and even problems with self-image. “The sleep deprivation alone should have us concerned, but what they’re consuming is not healthy for them,” says Swinyard. “Our kids are consuming a lot of toxic content on social media that we know is antithetical to their healthy development. Then we’re surprised that we are immersed in a mental health and wellness epidemic amongst kids.” 

But what could SPS do about this seemingly insurmountable problem? “I have a teenager—so I knew we weren’t going to be able to confiscate all the devices,” says Swinyard. “We needed practical, common-sense solutions.” And that’s just what the district found.

SPS set out to combat their students’ chronic device use from three angles. First, before the start of the 2024-25 school year, they revised their cellphone policy to restrict the use of devices during the school day. While students are allowed to keep their phones in their possession, devices must remain put away during class time. “We were the first large school district in our state to go cellphone-free inside of the classroom,” Swinyard shares.

By and large, students were responsive to the change. “I thought that on the first day of school, there was going to be this mass protest—kids lighting the garbage cans on fire,” Swinyard jokes. “But our kids really took it in stride. I think they have an intuitive sense that the attachment to devices is not healthy.” 

SPS also knew that to make a change in student behavior both inside and outside of school, they needed buy-in from the adults in their community as well. “We’ve done a lot of work on providing opportunities for staff, families, caregivers and community organizations to learn about the kids' device use behaviors and some of the impacts,” says Swinyard. The district hosted a community book study on Jonathan Haidt’s book The Anxious Generation, as well as public screenings of the award-winning documentary Screenagers—both of which examine the mental health problems associated with excessive adolescent device use. “We wanted everyone to learn together,” says Swinyard. “Let's make sure we’re all operating off of the same information—then start talking about solutions.” 

But the district also knew that to cut down on student smartphone use, they couldn’t just discourage excessive screen time—they also had to provide kids with healthier alternatives. And so, the Engage in Real Life initiative was born.

The Engage in Real Life initiative—or EngageIRL, for short—is a project with an ambitious goal: “Every kid, every day, doing something outside of school, whether that’s a club, performing arts, visual arts or athletics,” says Swinyard. “Instead of telling kids ‘no devices’—which is not the answer—or giving them unfettered access—also not the answer—we're telling them, ‘Hey, go participate in your club for a few hours.’ We want to get them out of the house and off of their devices so they can be together in real life.” 

But if SPS wanted to engage all 29,000 of their students in extracurriculars, they couldn’t do it alone. So from the beginning, they partnered with LaunchNW, a nonprofit project dedicated to providing wraparound supports for students and families in the Pacific Northwest. Together, SPS and LaunchNW fostered partnerships with more than 50 other community organizations: the parks and recreation department, the library system, the local YMCA and many more. 

Altogether, students in Spokane from pre-K to high school now have more than 1,000 extracurricular activities available to them. Whether they’re into basketball, snowshoeing, 3D printing or Japanese calligraphy, there’s an activity to suit their interest.

But providing opportunities is only one piece of the puzzle. How does SPS make sure students actually take advantage of them? “We know that behavior without a plan is unpredictable—but when we actually set some goals and talk about our next steps, we can increase fidelity quite a bit,” says Swinyard. So as part of their start-of-year conferences, each student fills out an “IRL plan" mapping out their extracurriculars for the year. “That allows us to send reminders to families, so we can make sure they don’t miss the activities they're intending to do,” Swinyard explains. “It also allows kids to say what they wish was offered.”

To make finding activities as easy as possible, the EngageIRL website includes a comprehensive directory of all the available extracurriculars. “This is a one-stop shop where families can go to look for activities and athletics, whether they’re district-sponsored or offered through a community-based organization,” says Swinyard. Families can even filter the activity list by location, age group and cost—though at least half the activities offered are free. “It takes so much time for families to jump around websites and scour social media to find different opportunities,” Swinyard says. “We’ve really committed to streamlining it for families with this directory.” 

For families who need further help plugging into activities, SPS employs five “engagement navigators”—one for each of the district’s feeder patterns. “Their job is to really focus on those groups of schools to address barriers to participation,” Swinyard explains. “Some families might struggle with language barriers, transportation challenges or financial constraints. So those engagement navigators are working really hard to tear those walls down.”

And thanks to data-sharing agreements with community partners, the district can see how and when students are participating. “Our leaders can go into a dashboard and see all their kids—what they’ve signed up for and what they’ve participated in,” says Swinyard. “Community partners can take attendance. Then if so-and-so hasn’t been going to their activity at the Boys and Girls Club all week, we can check in and see if they’re facing some kind of barrier. We’re creating that connective tissue as a community.”