Yorktown board holds first reading of student personal electronic device policy

YORKTOWN, N.Y. — The Yorktown Central School District Board of Education on June 16 completed a first reading of a required new policy restricting students’ use of internet‑enabled devices during the school day, while preserving limited exceptions for instructional use, lunch periods and emergency reunification.

Superintendent Dr. Ron Hatter told the board the district surveyed students, parents and staff before drafting the policy and discussed implementation with legal counsel. He said the draft attempts to balance competing views while staying within Education Law §2803.

The policy would require K–8 students to keep phones and other internet‑enabled devices away (for example, stored in backpacks); middle‑school students would keep devices in lockers; and high‑school students would keep devices in backpacks or lockers and may use them only when a teacher expressly permits that use for instruction. The draft also allows limited use during a student’s lunch period in the high school and specifies exceptions for health‑related uses and emergency reunification procedures.

“Two percent of students had no opinion,” Dr. Hatter said when summarizing survey results. “Ninety‑five percent of our students oppose a ban. Ninety‑one percent of teachers support a ban.” He added that 60% of students said they sometimes use phones for academic purposes and 89% use them to communicate with family.

The drafts grew from a policy committee process and consultation with the superintendent’s student council, Dr. Hatter said. He described several practical concerns the committee weighed — for example, how strict storage systems such as pouches can be circumvented, and how phones are part of some families’ safety communications. The student council told administrators that students sometimes need their phones to text parents about schedule or ride changes and that phones can serve instructional purposes when used alongside district devices.

Public comment at the meeting underscored the policy’s tensions. Parent and high‑school social worker Alex Sullivan urged a stricter approach, saying taking phones during the school day would be “a gift for our students” and would allow teachers to focus on instruction. “I truly believe it's a gift for our students to have their phones physically taken away for the six hours that they're in school,” Sullivan said.

The board and administration agreed the draft is imperfect and will require implementation details and procedures. Dr. Hatter said administrators will develop operational procedures for the cafeteria and for granting limited permissions, and that safety protocols are being refined because students’ phones may be important during reunification in an emergency.

Under state law, boards must adopt a personal electronic device policy by Aug. 1. The Yorktown board completed the required first reading on June 16 and indicated it intends to seek adoption at the board’s July 1 meeting so the district can meet the deadline.

Next steps: the policy committee and central office will draft implementing procedures and report back; the board expects a formal adoption vote at its July 1 meeting.