New cell phone policy for 2026-2027

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for the kids who sit alone and have no friends in their lunch period. They are the ones who now have to sit there looking around at other kids in groups.

And how exactly would staring at their phone during lunch develop their social skills? Maybe now they will look at a neighbor who is also sitting alone and figure out how to connect, develop their social skills, and improve their mental health. Screens are what got some kids into a pit of loneliness.

I applaud the district/state for trying to improve learning and connection, though I will miss being able to communicate a change in plans to my kid. Hope the main office is ready for the barrage of phone calls coming in to “please contact my kid about…”. And will they have a landline the kids can use to call home if needed? They can’t just cut parents off.

Every classroom and office has a landline in every school.

Kids will still turn their phones on immediately at the dismissal bell and see anything you’ve texted mid day, but schools also have always had procedures in place to contact kids in an urgent situation. I suspect once it is a smidgen of effort to contact kids, a lot of what seemed urgent to many of the parents will be able to wait until 3 pm.

It’s worked fine in middle schools where phones were completely restricted this year, it will work fine in high school too.

I'm a parent of a kid in another county with a ban. No the kids are not allowed to use the office phone or the classroom phones. If a parent calls the office with a message for your kid, they office policy is to EMAIL the kid. Which they will not get since they can't have their phones. It's a mess.

Clearly if there was a real emergency they would get ahold of your kid more quickly.

I applaud the school for emailing dumb sht like, “dad is going to pick you up instead of mom” or “don’t forget to walk the dog when you get home”. It can wait until 3:00 without issue.

Email can be accessed from laptops at lunch, texts can be read at 3:01.

you think laptops are out at lunch? no.

of course a true ER can get to my kid, but what about - the orthodontist can get you in at 1:30 pm to take care of that loose wire that's poking your cheek, so I will pick you up.

+1 this exactly. There are so many circumstances where my kid needs to check a quick text at lunch to solidify the after school plans. Waiting until 3 pm to be able to see it as they are rushing to the bus would not cut it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for the kids who sit alone and have no friends in their lunch period. They are the ones who now have to sit there looking around at other kids in groups.

And how exactly would staring at their phone during lunch develop their social skills? Maybe now they will look at a neighbor who is also sitting alone and figure out how to connect, develop their social skills, and improve their mental health. Screens are what got some kids into a pit of loneliness.

I applaud the district/state for trying to improve learning and connection, though I will miss being able to communicate a change in plans to my kid. Hope the main office is ready for the barrage of phone calls coming in to “please contact my kid about…”. And will they have a landline the kids can use to call home if needed? They can’t just cut parents off.

Every classroom and office has a landline in every school.

Kids will still turn their phones on immediately at the dismissal bell and see anything you’ve texted mid day, but schools also have always had procedures in place to contact kids in an urgent situation. I suspect once it is a smidgen of effort to contact kids, a lot of what seemed urgent to many of the parents will be able to wait until 3 pm.

It’s worked fine in middle schools where phones were completely restricted this year, it will work fine in high school too.

I'm a parent of a kid in another county with a ban. No the kids are not allowed to use the office phone or the classroom phones. If a parent calls the office with a message for your kid, they office policy is to EMAIL the kid. Which they will not get since they can't have their phones. It's a mess.

Clearly if there was a real emergency they would get ahold of your kid more quickly.

I applaud the school for emailing dumb sht like, “dad is going to pick you up instead of mom” or “don’t forget to walk the dog when you get home”. It can wait until 3:00 without issue.

Email can be accessed from laptops at lunch, texts can be read at 3:01.

you think laptops are out at lunch? no.

of course a true ER can get to my kid, but what about - the orthodontist can get you in at 1:30 pm to take care of that loose wire that's poking your cheek, so I will pick you up.

You go to the school and get the kid.

How is that confusing to you? Why are you pretending like that scenario is complex?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I fully support the new law banning cell phones at school, including during lunch and including for high school students.

The research is becoming overwhelmingly clear: excessive technology use — especially smartphones, social media, and unrestricted internet access — is harming children’s cognitive development, attention spans, mental health, social skills, and relationships.

Lunch should be a time for face-to-face conversation, friendship, problem-solving, and social development. When students spend lunch scrolling on phones, they are missing critical opportunities to develop real-world communication and interpersonal skills.

Cell phones at school are also frequently used inappropriately to coordinate fights, bullying, vaping, cheating, and other unsafe behaviors. Cyberbullying does not stop during the school day when students have unrestricted access to devices and social media.

There is a growing international movement calling for more intentional and limited technology use for children and teens. Many experts are now advocating for:
• Phone-free schools
• Reduced unnecessary screen use in academics
• More paper-and-pencil learning
• Better protections and safeguards for internet access and school platforms
• Stronger boundaries around AI use for children and teens

Research is also raising serious concerns about unrestricted AI chatbot access for minors. Some AI chatbots have reportedly encouraged suicidal ideation, self-harm, eating disorders, and other dangerous behaviors in vulnerable youth.

Protect children and teens. Their brains, attention, relationships, and emotional health matter more than constant digital access.

Some researchers/authors to follow and read:
• Jonathan Haidt — author of The Anxious Generation
• Fairplay
• Wait Until 8th
• “The Digital Delusion”book
• “Scrolling to Death”
• Ongoing lawsuits against Meta and other tech companies alleging intentional addictive design targeting children and teens
*Tristan Harris- AI ethicist

so don't send YOUR kid to school with a phone. problem solved for YOU.

DP. Incorrect!
If my kids have no phones at school, but others do, the problem is not solved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for the kids who sit alone and have no friends in their lunch period. They are the ones who now have to sit there looking around at other kids in groups.

And how exactly would staring at their phone during lunch develop their social skills? Maybe now they will look at a neighbor who is also sitting alone and figure out how to connect, develop their social skills, and improve their mental health. Screens are what got some kids into a pit of loneliness.

I applaud the district/state for trying to improve learning and connection, though I will miss being able to communicate a change in plans to my kid. Hope the main office is ready for the barrage of phone calls coming in to “please contact my kid about…”. And will they have a landline the kids can use to call home if needed? They can’t just cut parents off.

Every classroom and office has a landline in every school.

Kids will still turn their phones on immediately at the dismissal bell and see anything you’ve texted mid day, but schools also have always had procedures in place to contact kids in an urgent situation. I suspect once it is a smidgen of effort to contact kids, a lot of what seemed urgent to many of the parents will be able to wait until 3 pm.

It’s worked fine in middle schools where phones were completely restricted this year, it will work fine in high school too.

I'm a parent of a kid in another county with a ban. No the kids are not allowed to use the office phone or the classroom phones. If a parent calls the office with a message for your kid, they office policy is to EMAIL the kid. Which they will not get since they can't have their phones. It's a mess.

Clearly if there was a real emergency they would get ahold of your kid more quickly.

I applaud the school for emailing dumb sht like, “dad is going to pick you up instead of mom” or “don’t forget to walk the dog when you get home”. It can wait until 3:00 without issue.

Email can be accessed from laptops at lunch, texts can be read at 3:01.

you think laptops are out at lunch? no.

of course a true ER can get to my kid, but what about - the orthodontist can get you in at 1:30 pm to take care of that loose wire that's poking your cheek, so I will pick you up.

You go to the school and get the kid.

How is that confusing to you? Why are you pretending like that scenario is complex?

It literally states on the website that early dismissals need to be arranged ahead of time and that if you just show up icons to just prick your kid up it could take 20 minutes to actually get your kid. That wouldn’t work. And we need to hear back from our kid if it’s ok for them to miss a class. If they have a test we wouldn’t want to schedule the ortho appohtment then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is so important during the day that they need their phones. Kids went without phones at school for decades. We all survived.

You must not have high school students. I would have said the same thing a few years ago, but my kids check their phones at the lunch break because their coaches text and message through apps during the day to tell them about practice, bus times for games, changes for weather, changes because of field scheduling issues, etc.
I personally have texted high school babysitters during the day to tell them of changes for the afternoon/evening. Communication has changed dramatically since the 1990s, and expectations of being able to get in touch have as well - for better or worse.

I agree that I don't want my teens on their phones all day and I think it's 100% appropriate to have the phones away during classes, but they should be able to check in during lunch. That's just how the world communicates now.

I guess coaches, bosses, etc. are going to have to get used to this and communicate differently as well.

Other clubs communicate during day through instagram and texting appa that are blocked/not available to access on laptops. A good change would be for HS to not push instagram as communication tool but ridiculous to say no phones when that’s how majority of clubs and activities are communicating in HS.

Coaches could just use email. The kids access school email from laptops. Problem solved. Coaches should never have been using social media and message apps to communicate with students anyway.

They don’t have time to check email on their bulky laptop during lunch. What a stupid idea. They should be allowed to check their phone for texts or email at lunch.

right and i don't want my kid checking email during classes when the laptop is out. and it's not out all the time in classes anyways. what a dumb idea.

I’d rather my kid check a quick text at lunch then not pay in class to rabidly check email all day long. We are just going to create more problems all around by not allowing students to use their phone at lunch. It’ll be a hassle for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is so important during the day that they need their phones. Kids went without phones at school for decades. We all survived.

You must not have high school students. I would have said the same thing a few years ago, but my kids check their phones at the lunch break because their coaches text and message through apps during the day to tell them about practice, bus times for games, changes for weather, changes because of field scheduling issues, etc.
I personally have texted high school babysitters during the day to tell them of changes for the afternoon/evening. Communication has changed dramatically since the 1990s, and expectations of being able to get in touch have as well - for better or worse.

I agree that I don't want my teens on their phones all day and I think it's 100% appropriate to have the phones away during classes, but they should be able to check in during lunch. That's just how the world communicates now.

I guess coaches, bosses, etc. are going to have to get used to this and communicate differently as well.

Other clubs communicate during day through instagram and texting appa that are blocked/not available to access on laptops. A good change would be for HS to not push instagram as communication tool but ridiculous to say no phones when that’s how majority of clubs and activities are communicating in HS.

Coaches could just use email. The kids access school email from laptops. Problem solved. Coaches should never have been using social media and message apps to communicate with students anyway.

They don’t have time to check email on their bulky laptop during lunch. What a stupid idea. They should be allowed to check their phone for texts or email at lunch.

right and i don't want my kid checking email during classes when the laptop is out. and it's not out all the time in classes anyways. what a dumb idea.

I’d rather my kid check a quick text at lunch then not pay in class to rabidly check email all day long. We are just going to create more problems all around by not allowing students to use their phone at lunch. It’ll be a hassle for everyone.

How many times in a school year do plans change during the school day like this?
Don’t early releases already require communication to the school if not arranged ahead of time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for the kids who sit alone and have no friends in their lunch period. They are the ones who now have to sit there looking around at other kids in groups.

And how exactly would staring at their phone during lunch develop their social skills? Maybe now they will look at a neighbor who is also sitting alone and figure out how to connect, develop their social skills, and improve their mental health. Screens are what got some kids into a pit of loneliness.

I applaud the district/state for trying to improve learning and connection, though I will miss being able to communicate a change in plans to my kid. Hope the main office is ready for the barrage of phone calls coming in to “please contact my kid about…”. And will they have a landline the kids can use to call home if needed? They can’t just cut parents off.

Every classroom and office has a landline in every school.

Kids will still turn their phones on immediately at the dismissal bell and see anything you’ve texted mid day, but schools also have always had procedures in place to contact kids in an urgent situation. I suspect once it is a smidgen of effort to contact kids, a lot of what seemed urgent to many of the parents will be able to wait until 3 pm.

It’s worked fine in middle schools where phones were completely restricted this year, it will work fine in high school too.

I'm a parent of a kid in another county with a ban. No the kids are not allowed to use the office phone or the classroom phones. If a parent calls the office with a message for your kid, they office policy is to EMAIL the kid. Which they will not get since they can't have their phones. It's a mess.

Clearly if there was a real emergency they would get ahold of your kid more quickly.

I applaud the school for emailing dumb sht like, “dad is going to pick you up instead of mom” or “don’t forget to walk the dog when you get home”. It can wait until 3:00 without issue.

Email can be accessed from laptops at lunch, texts can be read at 3:01.

you think laptops are out at lunch? no.

of course a true ER can get to my kid, but what about - the orthodontist can get you in at 1:30 pm to take care of that loose wire that's poking your cheek, so I will pick you up.

You go to the school and get the kid.

How is that confusing to you? Why are you pretending like that scenario is complex?

It literally states on the website that early dismissals need to be arranged ahead of time and that if you just show up icons to just prick your kid up it could take 20 minutes to actually get your kid. That wouldn’t work. And we need to hear back from our kid if it’s ok for them to miss a class. If they have a test we wouldn’t want to schedule the ortho appohtment then.

The state law is literally a “bell to bell” policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is so important during the day that they need their phones. Kids went without phones at school for decades. We all survived.

You must not have high school students. I would have said the same thing a few years ago, but my kids check their phones at the lunch break because their coaches text and message through apps during the day to tell them about practice, bus times for games, changes for weather, changes because of field scheduling issues, etc.
I personally have texted high school babysitters during the day to tell them of changes for the afternoon/evening. Communication has changed dramatically since the 1990s, and expectations of being able to get in touch have as well - for better or worse.

I agree that I don't want my teens on their phones all day and I think it's 100% appropriate to have the phones away during classes, but they should be able to check in during lunch. That's just how the world communicates now.

I guess coaches, bosses, etc. are going to have to get used to this and communicate differently as well.

Other clubs communicate during day through instagram and texting appa that are blocked/not available to access on laptops. A good change would be for HS to not push instagram as communication tool but ridiculous to say no phones when that’s how majority of clubs and activities are communicating in HS.

Coaches could just use email. The kids access school email from laptops. Problem solved. Coaches should never have been using social media and message apps to communicate with students anyway.

They don’t have time to check email on their bulky laptop during lunch. What a stupid idea. They should be allowed to check their phone for texts or email at lunch.

right and i don't want my kid checking email during classes when the laptop is out. and it's not out all the time in classes anyways. what a dumb idea.

I’d rather my kid check a quick text at lunch then not pay in class to rabidly check email all day long. We are just going to create more problems all around by not allowing students to use their phone at lunch. It’ll be a hassle for everyone.

How many times in a school year do plans change during the school day like this?
Don’t early releases already require communication to the school if not arranged ahead of time?

dp

10-20 times a year per kid

[Anonymous]

Oh no, they may have to talk to eachother!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for the kids who sit alone and have no friends in their lunch period. They are the ones who now have to sit there looking around at other kids in groups.

they can read a book. kids do not need to be on phones in school

So the extroverted social butterflies continue on as usual. But the introverted kids are driven to read a book and get their 30 minutes of their time taken away from them? The kids who have after school responsibilities get screwed?

This was a solution searching for a problem.

Oh no, they may have to read a book if they don't want to talk. That's horrible!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for the kids who sit alone and have no friends in their lunch period. They are the ones who now have to sit there looking around at other kids in groups.

they can read a book. kids do not need to be on phones in school

Reading a book isn’t relaxing. It’s also so effing loud in there no one can concentrate. Give me a break.

Speak for yourself. Reading is an incredibly relaxing activity for many people, and it doesn’t require a perfectly silent environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for the kids who sit alone and have no friends in their lunch period. They are the ones who now have to sit there looking around at other kids in groups.

they can read a book. kids do not need to be on phones in school

Reading a book isn’t relaxing. It’s also so effing loud in there no one can concentrate. Give me a break.

Speak for yourself. Reading is an incredibly relaxing activity for many people, and it doesn’t require a perfectly silent environment.

It does for my kid. They need silence to read or complete work well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is so important during the day that they need their phones. Kids went without phones at school for decades. We all survived.

You must not have high school students. I would have said the same thing a few years ago, but my kids check their phones at the lunch break because their coaches text and message through apps during the day to tell them about practice, bus times for games, changes for weather, changes because of field scheduling issues, etc.
I personally have texted high school babysitters during the day to tell them of changes for the afternoon/evening. Communication has changed dramatically since the 1990s, and expectations of being able to get in touch have as well - for better or worse.

I agree that I don't want my teens on their phones all day and I think it's 100% appropriate to have the phones away during classes, but they should be able to check in during lunch. That's just how the world communicates now.

I guess coaches, bosses, etc. are going to have to get used to this and communicate differently as well.

Other clubs communicate during day through instagram and texting appa that are blocked/not available to access on laptops. A good change would be for HS to not push instagram as communication tool but ridiculous to say no phones when that’s how majority of clubs and activities are communicating in HS.

Coaches could just use email. The kids access school email from laptops. Problem solved. Coaches should never have been using social media and message apps to communicate with students anyway.

They don’t have time to check email on their bulky laptop during lunch. What a stupid idea. They should be allowed to check their phone for texts or email at lunch.

right and i don't want my kid checking email during classes when the laptop is out. and it's not out all the time in classes anyways. what a dumb idea.

I’d rather my kid check a quick text at lunch then not pay in class to rabidly check email all day long. We are just going to create more problems all around by not allowing students to use their phone at lunch. It’ll be a hassle for everyone.

How many times in a school year do plans change during the school day like this?
Don’t early releases already require communication to the school if not arranged ahead of time?

dp

10-20 times a year per kid

+1

[Anonymous]

10-20 times per year per kid??? I think I’ve done it twice in all of high school, and kid is a junior!

[Anonymous]

Maybe if kid’s braces wire is bothering them, you talk in the morning before school.

“I’m going to call the orthodontist today to try to get you seen today or tomorrow. Are there any class periods that you absolutely don’t want to miss this week?”