The Challenge
When a board member at Cypress-Fairbanks ISD (CFISD) asked about student device use between 10 PM and 3 AM, Assistant Superintendent of Technology Charles Franklin had to aggregate data and piece together what was actually happening. That single question exposed a larger problem: without a complete, centralized picture of usage data, it was difficult to gather the pieces needed to tell the real story.
It’s a pattern playing out in districts across the country. Parents estimate students are on school devices four or more hours a day. The national average is closer to 52 minutes, and the majority of that time is spent on vetted instructional tools, not social media or entertainment. However, when districts can’t easily surface their own data, that perception gap fills itself; and by the time a board meeting is called, the conversation is already reactive.
For a district of 115,000+ students, CFISD needed more than a one-time data pull. They needed ongoing visibility, the kind that lets leaders get ahead of the conversation.
The Solution
CFISD was already a Lightspeed customer when the board question landed. Charles’s team reached out to see if Lightspeed Insight could help surface the data they needed, and the partnership grew from there.
“We reached out to Lightspeed because we already had Lightspeed Insight. We asked whether Insight could provide this data, and the team was nice enough to really dig in, ask questions, and start that process, providing monthly reports that eventually expanded into a full picture of screen time across the district. Luckily, Lightspeed was in the process of developing the capacity to get these numbers and metrics and have them available to strengthen the conversation.”
Charles Franklin, Assistant Superintendent of Technology, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
As Lightspeed built out the screen time capabilities in Lightspeed Insight, CFISD moved from monthly reports to a real-time dashboard that surfaces total usage by grade, campus, and app, both during and after school hours, so leaders can see the full picture at a glance:
- Daily minutes by grade: during school and after hours
- Trends across the year: spikes, dips, and seasonal patterns
- Top campuses by screen time: to inform intervention with school-level data
- Top apps by screen time: instructional vs. non-educational
- Like-size district benchmarks: for context against comparable districts
That kind of visibility changes what’s possible. Instead of reacting to board questions, leaders can proactively monitor and draw conclusions from trends.
The Impact
Instructional Visibility
With Lightspeed Insight, CFISD shares usage findings with curriculum and instruction leadership, cabinet-level staff, and the broader community on an ongoing basis. Campus-level data lets leaders identify which schools or classrooms are outliers and have the right conversation with the right people, moving from a single district-wide average to something genuinely prescriptive.
“When I’m seeing some hot spots, Lightspeed Insight allows us to be very prescriptive in how we address what teachers are teaching. It’s a tool that communicates to parents, but it also communicates internally to central office staff to help them understand what’s going on in a classroom from a macro level, so curriculum and instruction can articulate clearly whether changes are needed, and where.”
Charles Franklin, Assistant Superintendent of Technology, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
Budget Decisions
As declining enrollment and reduced funding force districts to make hard choices about software contracts, usage data turns those decisions from gut-feel conversations into evidence-based ones, identifying which applications are actually used enough to justify their cost.
“We have Lightspeed Insight, and we absolutely send that information to our curriculum and instruction leadership, but it’s also across every application we’re using. We show utilization and bounce it against cost. That’s all readily available with the tool, and it helps make those decisions.”
Charles Franklin, Assistant Superintendent of Technology, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
Community Communication
Beyond internal decisions, CFISD uses the data to fuel a deliberate, multi-channel communication strategy with parents. Every month, the district brings its parent leadership group in for conversations that regularly include technology, covering what students are doing on devices, how the district approaches digital citizenship, and what families can expect from the one-to-one program. The goal is to make sure parents aren’t forming their own narrative in a vacuum.
“If they don’t understand what’s going on, they’re going to make up their own narrative. Being able to own that narrative and lead into it, being honest and transparent, is what builds genuine trust.”
Charles Franklin, Assistant Superintendent of Technology, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
Board Preparedness
Charles’s advice to any district leader heading into a board meeting where screen time is on the agenda: don’t wait for the board meeting.
“Don’t have that conversation only at a board meeting. Be intentional and campaign around it. Get the community together. Have a roundtable, have a town hall. And if the pressure slows down, don’t stop. That parent engagement needs to be continuous.”
Charles Franklin, Assistant Superintendent of Technology, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
Connectivity and Student Readiness
It’s a philosophy rooted in something bigger than managing board questions. Charles is clear that how districts handle this conversation has real consequences for students, particularly those who depend on school devices for technology access they don’t have at home.
“K-12 public education is the great equalizer. It allows students from any background to achieve and succeed. But if you come to school and don’t have technology, and you go home and some kids do and some kids don’t, you start to see that preparedness gap widen for those who may not have the economic means to provide technology.”
Charles Franklin, Assistant Superintendent of Technology, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD
What started as a single board question became the catalyst for a district-wide communication strategy built on real data. For CFISD, Lightspeed Insight didn’t just answer the screen time question. It gave leaders the visibility to lead the conversation, make smarter decisions, and build the kind of community trust that holds up long after the headlines move on.
