Personal Smartwatches/Devices

Good afternoon EW Caregivers,

As a parent myself, I totally understand the need to stay connected with your child. The world we live in can be a scary one at times, and for that, I appreciate caregivers who want to have the immediate availability to connect with their child. This, coupled with the ability for students to communicate with their friends on these smartwatches can and has negatively impacted the learning environment.

In order to minimize distractions and avoid communication breakdown between home and school, we encourage both students and caregivers to not engage in back and forth communications via a smartwatch or similar devices during the school day. If the children need to contact you, we have phones available throughout the building so that your child or an adult can reach you. If you need to contact your child, simply call the office, and we can get the message to them quickly. Please know that we would contact you immediately if there were a safety or medical concern. Additionally, fairly frequently, students have been messaging their friends. For these reasons, smartwatches will be treated as other electronic devices with the exception of any students whose device is critical to their educational programming. Otherwise, they should remain in students’ bookbags until the end of the school day.

If your child is not feeling well during the day, we encourage them to alert their teacher or closest support staff member. The teacher or support staff member will ensure your child is seen by our school nurse. At that point, communication home via the school nurse will be initiated if necessary. Should you need to communicate a message to your child, please do not hesitate to call the office. We will ensure they get the information they need.

What if my child is going to wear a smartwatch to school as a watch? While students may wear them as a watch, students should not be using them to text, photograph, or call during the school day. Please be sure to set the device to schooltime so notifications and all apps are disabled.

I have steps for the most common devices listed below.

Apple Watch:

1. Open the Watch app on the paired iPhone.
2. Go to the My Watch tab.
3. Select the watch you want to manage (if you have multiple, including family-managed watches).
4. Tap Schooltime and then Edit Schedule.
5. Turn on Schooltime and set the start and end times for the school day.

Wear OS (e.g., Google, Samsung, AT&T):

1. Open the Family Link app or the specific watch's app (like AT&T amiGO™ app) on your phone.
2. Select the child's profile.
3. Navigate to School time or School mode settings.
4. Tap to create a new schedule or edit an existing one.
5. Set the start and end times for each day of the week.
6. You can also define a list of "Unlimited Apps" that will be accessible during school hours.

Other brands (e.g., Xplora, Garmin)

1. Open the specific brand's parent app (like the Xplora app or Garmin Jr. app).
2. Select your child's profile.
3. Find and tap School mode.
4. Tap to create a New school mode.
5. Set the start time, end time, and days you want it to apply.

Thank you for your understanding and support in advance!

Kindest regards,

Nick Argonish

Email: ewinfo@dasd.org
Website: https://ew.dasd.org/
Location: 435 Washington Avenue, Downingtown, PA, USA
Phone: (610) 269-8282
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dasdew
Twitter: @dasd_ew