Senate education committee hears wide-ranging testimony on bill to limit student phone and social-media use

Montpelier — The Vermont Senate Education Committee on the floor of a public hearing considered a bill that would direct the Agency of Education (AOE) to create a statewide model policy limiting student use of personal electronic devices and schools’ use of social media during the academic day.

The measure drew detailed testimony from Oliver Olsen, a representative of the Vermont Independent Schools Association, and from Liza Earl Centers, a Montpelier resident and organizer with the Vermont Coalition for Phone and Social Media Free Schools, among others. Witnesses described survey results, operational concerns for boarding and specialty schools, and competing priorities around student safety, equity and school logistics.

The bill’s central mechanism would require AOE to develop a baseline, “floor” policy that districts and approved independent schools could adapt. Oliver Olsen said VISA surveyed its membership of roughly 42 schools and received about 30 responses — “about a 70% response rate” — and that every responding school “had some sort of policy in place.” He told the committee that many independent schools support a model policy rather than a prescriptive statute but asked that the model allow documented exceptions for students with disabilities, international students with equivalent plans, boarding-school routines and certain athletic or co‑curricular uses.

Olsen urged several specific statutory changes the association would like the committee to…