School districts can now provide families with live device usage data — while keeping full administrative control over what is shown
Screen Time in Parent Portal closes that gap. Districts can finally have a proactive conversation with families instead of a reactive one.”— Matthew Burg, VP of Product IT Solutions at Lightspeed SystemsAUSTIN, TX, UNITED STATES, July 15, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Lightspeed Systems, a leading provider of K-12 digital safety, student wellness, and device management solutions, today announced the general availability of Screen Time within its Parent Portal. This new feature enables school districts to optionally share real-time student device usage information directly with parents and guardians.
Lightspeed’s own research indicates that 73% of parents worry about what their children are doing online and how much time they spend in front of screens — yet most lack direct access to specific device usage data for their child. Meanwhile, the actual figures paint a more balanced picture than many families anticipate: average school-day screen time amounts to only 48 minutes, with the overwhelming majority of that usage occurring in instructional tools rather than social media or entertainment.
Through Screen Time in Parent Portal, parents can view details such as the daily average time their child spends on the school device, total usage over the past week, the most frequently used applications, and a breakdown of usage during school hours versus after school. This information is delivered within the Lightspeed Parent Portal — a tool that districts already manage and control.
IT administrators have the authority to turn the feature on or off and to select exactly which data cards are visible, giving districts the flexibility to address parent and board requests without relinquishing oversight of what families see.
“Most school-day screen time is instructional — but parents have no way to know that. What we keep hearing from districts is that the anxiety isn’t coming from bad data, it’s coming from no data. Screen Time in Parent Portal closes that gap. Districts can finally have a proactive conversation with families instead of a reactive one,” said Matthew Burg, VP of Product IT Solutions at Lightspeed Systems.
Screen Time in Parent Portal is powered by Lightspeed Insight, so the same data that administrators already review is now available for districts to optionally reveal to families. No additional data collection, extra configuration, or added cost is required — the feature is included for all customers holding active Lightspeed Filter™ and Lightspeed Insight™ licenses with SmartSync configured.
Parents can also find a “How is this calculated?” explanation directly on the screen time page, providing the context needed to understand and trust the data.
Availability
Screen Time in Parent Portal is available now to all customers with active Lightspeed Filter and Lightspeed Insight licenses and SmartSync configured, at no additional cost. Administrators can enable it by navigating to Filter Settings → Parent Portal.
About Lightspeed Systems
With over 25 years of experience serving education, Lightspeed Systems delivers the deepest visibility and control to power exceptional schools where students are safe and engaged; technology is compliant and easily managed; and resources are secure and optimized. Built specifically for school networks and devices, Lightspeed’s cloud-managed solutions include the most effective web filtering, student safety monitoring, classroom management, device management, and data analytics software available. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with a European office in London, UK, Lightspeed serves more than 23 million students across 31,000 schools in 43 countries, utilizing 15 million devices.
Amy Bennett
Chief of Staff, Lightspeed Systems
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