Reply to New cell phone policy for 2026-2027

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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. [/quote]

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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

+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. [/quote]

Kids will adapt. Solidify after school plans the day before.[/quote]

You’ve missed the entire point but no worries. We we all get around the rule.[/quote]

The point is that you and your child are addicted to your phones and are really bad about making plans?[/quote]
Sometimes plans come at the last minute.  How hard is that to understand?  My DS has had to stay after school to meet with a teacher on occasion; it helps when he can let me know before I leave work (I leave at 2:30) so I can head to the school instead of heading home.[/quote]

Your kid can always ride the late bus home or walk, or meet with the teacher during the advisory block, or send them an email to arrange a meeting ahead of time for the following day when they’ve had a chance to talk to you, or pop over during passing period, or ask if they can stop by during lunch one day, or or or…

All of these are strategies my students use.

Sounds like your kid struggles with planning ahead too. Maybe the rule will help both of you learn to communicate ahead of time. Sounds like a win.[/quote]

My kid does meet his teachers during advisory and at other times, but he struggles in a lot of classes, so he may see one teacher during advisory and another after school.  [/quote]

Also, he will email his teachers at night/over the weekend about needing to meet, but they won’t get back to him until the school day.[/quote]

I really don’t understand this. If the teacher requires email communication in order to allow a child to stay after school, then he needs to plan more than a few hours in advance. Ask on Monday night to stay on Wednesday. Email Friday morning to stay on Monday. If he’s waiting until the last minute to ask (and yes, 8 pm on Monday asking to stay on Tuesday is last minute) then yeah, it’s going to be harder to coordinate.[/quote]

Great. So the new policy will work for you. It won’t for us. My child will be texting me at lunch if after school plans happen or change. He has my permission and I will be letting the school know if they try to discipline him for a lunch infraction that he was simply coordinating with me. No school is going to tell me that my child can’t use his phone at lunch to communicate with his parent.[/quote]

They will take the phone and after the second or third infraction tell you to come to the school to pick up the phone. at least, that is what they can do if they chose to enforce the rules. Threads earlier this year made it clear that there were plenty of schools doing just that. [/quote]

You really think they are walking up and down the cafeteria looking for kids on phones? Please. lol.

In addition, there will be 504 exemptions to the rule. How do they know that kid doesn’t have diabetes and needs their phone? Are they going to confront a kid on their phone at lunch and ask if they have diabetes? They will have no idea which kids at lunch have a medical exemption. It would be a HIPPA violation for them to ask what medical condition they have that necessitates their phone use.[/quote]

sadly yes they probably will be policing. and they confront the kids who have medical exemptions, it's terrible and othering

all this because some parents couldn't just take the phone away from their own kids[/quote]

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