Restricting Cell Phone Use In Schools: Virginia's Guidance Finalized

VIRGINIA — After a one-month public feedback period, the Virginia Department of Education has finalized its guidance to school districts on adopting cell phone restrictions during the school day. The rules ban students from carrying their phones during school hours.

Over the summer, Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order requiring the state's K-12 school divisions to set policies to limit student cell phone use during the school day, citing distractions in classrooms and poor mental health outcomes from social media and cell phone use. The state released draft guidance on Aug. 15 for public review and comments before finalizing guidance one month later.

"This guidance from the Virginia Department of Education is an important step towards creating a healthier learning environment where students can receive a quality education free from harmful distractions," said Youngkin in a statement Tuesday. "I appreciate the substantive engagement from parents, teachers, administrators and our students, and we will continue to engage in these discussions with parents and students on how Virginia can continue to improve these policies and keep the Commonwealth’s education system best-in-class."

According to the state guidance issued Monday, students should not have cell phones on them or in their pockets during the school day. School divisions may set their own guidance on how cell phones and devices should be stored during the school day, such as in backpacks, lockers, locked pouches or another designated location in classrooms.

For elementary schools, the final guidance says if parents allow students to bring personal devices to school, the phones must be stored and turned off during the school day. Those devices would not be allowed to be used on school grounds before and after school.

For middle schools, the guidance says cell phones and other devices should not be "easily available" during the school day. However, school divisions may set their own guidance for device use before and after school.

For high schools, the guidance says devices should not be "easily accessible" during the school day, but may be used before and after school.

A list of current cell phone policies by school division is available on the Virginia Department of Education website. School divisions must review their existing policies and adapt them to meet state policy if needed by Jan. 1, 2025.

The Virginia Department of Education and partner agencies plan to conduct a review at the end of the school year to determine the impact of the cell phone rules and make changes if needed.

Feedback On Cell Phone Restrictions

The Virginia Department of Education said nearly 6,000 comments about the cell phone ban came in online and through 21 community meetings across the state. Overall, comments supported helping teachers focus on instruction, help students focus on learning rather than social media distractions, ensuring students provide authentic work for classes, and boosting students' communication skills.

Feedback also indicated families do not want teachers to be solely responsible for enforcing cell phone restrictions in classrooms.

Many student commenters advocated for cell phone use during lunch, but the Virginia Department of Education argued that cell phones provided a distraction both during and outside of instructional time.

"It is essential that students have the opportunity to develop face-to-face conversations and critical in-person communication skills during unstructured school hours," the Virginia Department of Education said in a news release.

Families raised a concern about a need for phone-based apps to monitor health for medical reasons. The Virginia Department of Education said it worked with school nurses, pediatricians and the Virginia Department of Health to provide exemptions for students with medical needs through IEPs, 504 plans or individualized health-care plans.

Another concern raised by parents was the need to communicate directly with students in emergency and non-emergency situations. The guidance sets recommendations for parents to use school-based communication channels to get in touch with their students.

Virginia already requires crisis and contingency plans in emergency situations and says many schools have procedures in place for family emergencies. The new guidance requires school divisions to have plans on communicating directly with parents, as well as reunification plans in family and school emergency situations. State agencies will be tasked with helping school divisions to create required emergency response and communications plans and establishing a task force to support school divisions with school emergency communications.

A poll released last Friday by the Washington Post-Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University showed 69 percent of Virginians with school-age children support a ban on cell phones during the school day.