The Chappaqua Central School District Board of Education held a first reading Wednesday on a new policy limiting nonacademic use of internet-enabled devices during the school day, a change prompted by a state-level mandate the district must implement by August.

Policy committee members summarized the requirement: "The governor has mandated, basically that there's no Internet enabled device for nonacademic purposes in school during the school day," a policy team member said. Under the draft policy, elementary and middle school expectations will align with longstanding practice — devices should remain off or stored during the school day — while Horace Greeley High School will retain more classroom and campus flexibility for instructional use and emergency communications.

Superintendent Dr. Ackerman said the district will seek feedback from students, staff and parents before the policy returns to the policy committee next week for further review. "My plan tomorrow is to make an announcement at Horace Greeley and then share it with ninth, tenth and eleventh graders for feedback. And then share it with our K through 11 parents and then all of our faculty," he said.

The draft includes exemptions for instructional use at the discretion of teachers and clarifies that devices used for academic work are not covered by the restriction. It also notes that "a student shall not be suspended solely for assessing and, accessing an Internet enabled device in violation of this policy," while warning that noncompliance could lead to other consequences.

District leaders said they prefer a locally tailored approach to preserve Horace Greeley’s open-campus norms and emergency communications plans. The transcript shows the board intends to collect community input and review the policy in the policy committee next week; state regulation requires final adoption by Aug. 1.