Hi MCPS parents:
I hope you'll consider signing this letter of support for an "Away All Day" cell phone policy:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9PxONQlAumVvvUyUqbxHjyykRipMXiILJlzFgc1xPzJE4cA/viewform
MCPS is already behind the growing wave of districts nationwide (and worldwide) that have ruled students should not have access to phones during the school day. (Including Howard County, MD, and all of VA.) Our kids' safety, learning, and socio-emotional outcomes will benefit from this change. As just one example, US students' academic skills increased steadily for 50 years until the widespread introduction of smartphones in 2012, and have been declining ever since. We need to reverse this change.
None of us needed phones in schools as kids and would have found the idea of having constant access to a phone, messaging, video games, and movies throughout the school day ridiculous. Because it is!
If you would like to see for yourself what changes a policy like this yields, please watch this short Today Show clip about the "away all day" policy enacted in the Dayton County public schools:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItnhWeP-om4