Governments and school boards reconsider school phone policies across U.S.
Oregon lawmakers may soon be reconsidering their long-time neutrality on school cell phone policies as teachers continue to attest that it is a pressing issue affecting modern education. Currently, Oregon is in the majority of states in the U.S. that do not have statewide legislation on school cell phone policies, meaning it is left entirely up to the school or district. Gov. Tina Kotek believes it may be time for the state to step in in an effort to improve the school learning environment. She states she wants to institute a policy that can both improve students’ well-being and address parent concerns about easy contact with their students. The specifics of a potential phone policy for Oregon schools are still unknown, but The Oregonian has reported that both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are working on a bill to address student phone usage.
Cell phone bans or restrictions in schools are not a new occurrence by any means. In fact, since the first mobile devices were available to consumers in the mid-’90s, schools have perceived them as a threat to the school environment. The restrictions have been on and off throughout the country since then, with security during emergency situations being one of the reasons phones have remained unbanned in many schools. It has often been seen as a safety issue for students not to have the ability to make an emergency call should they need to. With the emergence of smartphones and an entirely new genre of distractions available at student’s fingertips, phone bans have resurfaced. Federal data states that by 2010, 90 percent of schools had, once again, banned phones. This number dropped to two-thirds in 2016.
The new decade didn’t see the elimination of phone bans, rather a resurfacing of the same worries of distracted students and cyberbullying fueling earlier bans. As of the 2021-22 school year, 75 percent of K-12 schools had a ban on phones. The reignited worries also ushered in a new trend of state intervention in their school’s phone policies. So far five states have committed to a “cell phone-free education,” although in some cases it remains unclear what that means in practice. Other state legislatures have simply mandated or encouraged their state’s districts to create their own phone policies rather than passing one statewide policy. More states have recently introduced similar legislation.
Phone usage has also been addressed on a national level worldwide, with one in four countries banning or restricting student phone use during the instructional day. The federal government has made no such policies yet, nor have they expressed any plans to. Schools internationally, similar to schools within the U.S., have seen mixed results as a consequence of their bans or restrictions on phone use. According to the New York Times, some schools reported fewer reports of cyberbullying after phones were restricted at school, while others found no change or even the opposite. In some cases, test scores and grades increased, although inconsistently.
Though the effects of restrictions or bans on student phone use remain a subject of debate, trends suggest that more restrictions are likely to occur, including from higher levels of government.
South’s phone policies this year remain the same: as the most recent student handbook states, phones must be turned off and put away during class unless a teacher specifies otherwise. According to Assistant Principal Ricci Huling, in practice, specifics of the phone policy are left entirely “up to teachers,” who all have their own rules. In a meeting prior to the start of school, one of the subjects of discussion was South’s phone policy. Although no changes have been made, a Technology Committee will meet throughout the year to discuss, among other technology topics, phone use in the building.
Article by Julian White