A statewide ban that prohibits phone use during school hours for students in Kansas public schools has been passed by the Kansas legislature and signed into law by Gov. Laura Kelly on March 19.
Districts have until Sept. 1 to adopt new policies to comply with House Bill 2299, which requires all students’ personal communication electronic devices to be powered off and stored away during school hours, from “bell to bell.”
Implementation at the school is still in an early stage of planning, according to principal Dr. Gail Holder. Since the developing district policy will not be deployed until the next school year, there can only be speculation on what the changes will be.
Regardless of the specific practices that may be introduced, sophomore Caleb Swanson believes that enforcement of the law will be difficult.
“I think people are still gonna be on their phones, just gonna be hiding them more,” Swanson said. “I don’t really know how much change it’s gonna have, because there already are phone rules.”
The rules around cell phones that are already in place at the school appear to work well enough in practice from Holder’s lens.
“Teachers have the pouches and the shelves and the cubbies. We have had very few cell phones brought to the office because they’ve been out during instructional time,” Holder said. “So I don’t know how huge of an issue it is here at Mill Valley.”
Whether or not the current school policy is adhered to, some see long-term problems caused by cell phone use in the school. English teacher Page Anderson thinks that the new state-imposed regulations will be a net positive.
“Overall, I think it’s good. I do see a big difference between students I had 10 years ago versus students I have now, in terms of focus and ability to focus well, ability to focus on a task for a longer period of time without becoming distracted.” Anderson said.
Ultimately, the upcoming policy will be designed to protect student well-being, according to Holder.
“Success is going to look like students remaining safe in all the ways, and then academic instruction being delivered without distractions,” Holder said.
However, that isn’t to say that the impact will include new challenges and questions, especially in the early stages.
“We’re going to have to work through it together,” Holder said. “This is going to be about our parent community, our students, our staff, our administration, everybody working together, knowing it’s going to be a new expectation that is going to have a big impact.”
