Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Student Technology Policy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
CUSD 200 board approves posting of smart-device policy for public comment after questions on smartwatches and lunch use
Summary
At its May 14 meeting the CUSD 200 Board of Education voted to post a proposed smart-device policy procedure for public comment. Trustees discussed how wearables such as smartwatches fit in the draft, whether lunch access should be treated as instructional time and how anticipated state law might affect the final policy.
The CUSD 200 Board of Education voted May 14 to post for public comment a proposed smart-device policy procedure that would be incorporated into student handbooks and appear as a standalone document on the district website. The board approved the policy posting as presented and staff said they will make adjustments before the board considers final adoption next month.
Board members and staff said the policy is meant to align with an anticipated state law while giving the district time to pilot changes before full implementation. “I think there's a good chance before you come back for approval, that that will be codified in law,” Superintendent Doctor Schuler said, adding the district could make minor edits before final approval.
The discussion focused on three practical points: whether smartwatches should be listed explicitly in the high-school limited-access language, whether students should be allowed to access devices at lunch, and the level of discretion teachers and access-period staff will have.
Staff said the draft treats wearable devices as cellular devices and that middle- and elementary-level language already mentions wearables explicitly while the high-school limited-access section currently lists cell phones and earbuds but not wearables. “They are gonna fall in the bucket of a cellular device,” a staff member said. Board members asked that wearables be called out explicitly in the high-school language before final adoption; staff said they can make that change during the posting period.
Trustees also asked whether lunch should be labeled an instructional period — a change that would limit unsupervised phone use. A board member asked, “Would there be any consideration towards labeling lunch period as an instructional time period?” A staff response said the district does not currently plan to label lunch as instructional and that access will largely be governed by the activity during the access period: "I think there's gonna be probably a little bit of latitude inside of schools based on whatever happens to be going on in that time," the superintendent said.
The board and staff repeatedly emphasized that the posted procedure is intended to be implemented and then reviewed. Staff noted the draft would accelerate the timeline for the district relative to the anticipated state law, which requires similar policies by the start of the 2026–27 school year. "That would require that school boards have this policy in place by the start of the 2627 school year; you would be accelerating that by a year," Dr. Schuler said.
Board members asked staff to call the posting out in the board highlights and on the district website so the community can comment; staff agreed. Trustees approved the policy posting by unanimous roll call vote.
What happens next: the draft will be available for a public comment period and staff said they will revise the text before returning the policy to the board for consideration of final adoption. Staff also said procedures will be updated to reflect any enacted state law and to address practical items raised by trustees, such as an explicit wearable-device reference in the high-school section.
