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Does the policy go far enough or will it need to be changed in the months to come? That’s a question a number of school districts both in this region and across the commonwealth will be asking over the summer, as they work to interpret Virginia’s new Cell Phone-Free Education law. 

On Friday, May 30, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin held a ceremonial signing of his “Bell-to-Bell Cell Phone-Free” policy and left no doubt as to what will be required. Over the last few weeks, there had been some school districts wondering if a lesser, or a similar but not quite the same, policy would be accepted. Youngkin left no doubt in the statement released after Friday’s ceremony. 

“School divisions will be required to adopt a full bell-to-bell cell phone-free policy during school hours,” it states. 

Explaining the ‘Cell Phone-Free Education’  

Back on April 2, the Virginia Assembly approved SB738 and HB1961, bills designed to crack down further on cell phone usage in schools. Both passed with unanimous votes in their final version, a rarity in Richmond. 

The key part of both bills comes in Section B, where it says that “each school board shall develop and each public elementary and secondary school shall implement age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate policies” for both cell phone and smart device use. One line below that, the bill makes it clear what the Assembly and governor expect those policies to include. It states that “except as provided in subdivision 4, restrict cell phone and smart device possession and use on school property from bell to bell.” 

And in case there’s any confusion, the bills also spell out what “bell to bell” is supposed to mean, stating that “bell to bell means after the first bell rings at the start of the school day to begin instructional time until the dismissal bill rings at the end of the school day. “Bell to bell” includes lunch and time in between class periods.” In other words, from the time the first bell rings to start school until it ends, cell phone and smart device usage is to be restricted.

This is something the governor and the Virginia Department of Education have been pushing for since last September, when the department issued a report on the subject. This came after several meetings with teachers and parents across the Commonwealth last summer, with one of those taking place in Keysville. 

“School should be a place of learning and human interaction—free from the distractions and classroom disruptions of cell-phone and social media use,” Youngkin said on Friday. “Our students will learn more and be healthier and safer.” 

Going over the new law

DOE officials in the September report said they learned from the meetings that teachers want a ban to be able to focus on teaching and not just discipline. Parents want kids to have to put down the phones and develop critical communication skills. Everyone agreed that they want phones to be put away to avoid the drama caused from texts and sharing comments. But how do you enforce it without making more work for teachers? 

The bill states that enforcement is to be “the responsibility of the school administration,” limiting “any conflict with the instructional responsibilities of teachers or any disturbance to instructional time.” Basically the bill and previous executive order were pretty clear in this regard. They want teachers to teach, not to be dealing with cell phones.

Districts don’t immediately need to make changes, as this law doesn’t take effect until July 1. For most school districts both here and around the region, it becomes a question of what, if anything, needs to change.  

Some change, some stay the same 

Some, like Lunenburg, don’t have to change anything. Elementary school students can have and use cell phones before and after dismissal. For middle and high school students, cell phones are required to be off and kept in the student’s assigned locker during regular school hours.

Nearby in Prince Edward, they’re still trying to come up with a plan. The school board has been discussing making changes to their own cell phone policy for a few months, unanimously adopting the changes during their Wednesday, May 7 meeting. 

Under the current Prince Edward policy, students can use phones in the school cafeteria during lunch. But once you enter class, they have to be put away and silenced. That’s up to the student to follow the rule and the teacher to enforce it. This change will make things simpler. 

The May 7 vote doesn’t address the “bell to bell” requirement in the new Assembly law, but Prince Edward school board members said they would address that in the months to come. 

In Charlotte, there’s a three-tiered system. 

Elementary students are not allowed to have cell phones at school. Middle schoolers can bring their phones, but they have to keep them turned off and out of sight all day. Randolph-Henry High students, meanwhile, can bring phones, but can’t have them out in class unless the teacher is directing an activity that calls for the phone to be used. In multiple classes, high school teachers in Charlotte have students use apps on their phones to work on class projects.

Other than that, from bell to bell, students have to put the phones up, except at lunch. But to be on the safe side, Superintendent Robbie Mason said district staff are working with their attorney to make sure the policy meets the criteria stated in the new law. 

Data about a Cell Phone-Free Education 

And this is a situation where there is data to back up the concept of cell phone free schools. A 2023 study by the Fordham Institute seems to back up that argument, stating that increased phone use in classes contributed to the decline seen in test scores even before the pandemic. 

“We see smartphone ownership really taking off among adolescents in middle and high school around 2013,” the Fordham report states. “That’s also when median achievement on the eighth-grade math test in the National Assessment on Educational Progress (NAEP) peaked. It’s fallen modestly ever since.” 

Research by the nonpartisan U.S. think tank The Conversation echoes the idea. They compared schools that had cell phones removed with others that allow cell use.

“We found banning mobile phones at school leads to an increase in student performance,” the 2022 report states. “Our results suggest that after schools banned mobile phones, test scores of students aged 16 increased by 6.4% of a standard deviation. This is equivalent to adding five days to the school year or an additional hour a week.” 

One of the biggest research projects on the subject was done in Norway, by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. More than 100 middle schools were included in the study released earlier this year, with a portion given free reign with cell phones and the rest dealing with a full ban. 

The schools with a ban on cell phones saw both an increase in average GPA and reduced bullying. There were also significantly fewer doctor visits detailing mental illness for those schools and administrators reported better attendance. As for the ones where cell phone use was allowed? There were no such changes.