Dublin City Schools Superintendent John Marshaussen and Board President Diana Rigby said the district will implement a statewide ban on student cell phones after Governor DeWine signed a budget bill that prohibits phone use in schools.

The change, the leaders said, is intended to protect instructional time and help students focus on learning. Teachers may still require phones for classroom activities, and students may use phones in emergencies; otherwise phones must be powered down or set to airplane mode and kept out of sight.

"We've worked together over the past year or so, and now Governor DeWine has signed into law the budget bill which prohibits cell phone use in our schools. This is gonna be a heavy lift for us," Superintendent John Marshaussen said. Board President Diana Rigby added that the district anticipates particular challenges at the high school level where students are accustomed to using phones during lunch, free periods and in hallways.

"Our teachers can still ask students to use their phone during the school day if it's part of instruction. And if there's an emergency, students will still have their phones and they can contact parents for times like reunification or if they needed to dial 911, we're just asking that those phones be in airplane mode or powered down during the school day," Marshaussen said. Rigby said the expectation is that "all personal devices [be] powered down ... and to be unused and put away," adding the policy fits a broader effort to build a school culture of responsibility.

District leaders asked parents to use established contact channels if they need to reach students during the day: call the school office to relay messages, or—at the high school level—email students at their school accounts so messages can reach students who are working on district Chromebooks. "So mom and dad, we ask for your help during this process," Marshaussen said.

Rigby said the district will work with staff to implement the new requirements and to keep students safe while complying with state law. "And this is part of the state law, so we're gonna follow law, we're gonna work with our staff, and we're gonna work together to keep our students safe in the Dublin City Schools," Marshaussen said.

District officials did not provide a timeline for full implementation or details about enforcement, disciplinary measures or how exceptions will be tracked beyond the classroom-instruction and emergency allowances described during the announcement. Those details, leaders said, will be developed as staff planning continues.