Willow South superintendent tells House Education bill to curb student cellphones has "been a resounding success"

Willow South Superintendent Ryan Herdy told the Vermont House Education Committee on May 2, 2025, that the supervisory union’s policy banning student cellphones during school hours “has been a resounding success,” citing improved academic performance, reduced bullying and higher teacher retention.

Herdy said the policy, implemented this school year across the union’s middle and high schools, requires students to keep personal cellphones in lockers or in another secured location chosen by school principals. He told lawmakers the district combined the restriction with other efforts and surveyed staff and families before and after implementation.

Herdy said staff-reported benefits include “increased student engagement, reduced incidence of hazing, harassment, and bullying, high levels of employee retention and satisfaction, more socialization and decreased student anxiety, less power struggles, and more focus on teaching and learning.” He also relayed a teacher’s reaction: the policy helped her “love her job again” after years of pandemic-related stress.

Herdy outlined several implementation steps he urged districts or the Legislature to consider: survey families and staff for support; set clear expectations and consistent consequences across all schools; educate students and families about the rationale; adopt a team approach to enforcement; and publish before-and-after survey results. “If there is something we can do to support teachers and encourage more to stay in our classrooms, we should do it,” he said.

On enforcement, Herdy described a tiered response the union uses: first offense results in a phone being sent to the office and returned at the end of the day; a second offense requires a parent to pick up the phone; a third offense triggers a parent meeting and a management plan. He estimated “probably 6 or 7 students” have reached that third level this year.

Herdy said the union allows narrowly tailored exceptions for medical reasons (for example, phones used to monitor blood sugar), students who rely on phones as communication devices, and extraordinary academic needs when principals authorize them. He said most academic needs can be met with school Chromebooks and that district-issued apps are accessible via Chromebooks and archived for monitoring. “If you need to communicate something to your children, you can send them an email. You don't need to text them. And if it's immediate, call the school,” he said.

On off-campus activities, Herdy said the union enforces a “bell-to-bell” rule for on-campus time, but allows phones on long bus rides, some overnight field trips and athletic events after school. He said elementary field trips during the school day are phone-free and that district principals retain discretion for exceptional circumstances.

Herdy described technology and communication choices the union made to reduce reliance on personal social-media apps: the district uses platforms that are accessible on Chromebooks and that can be archived and monitored. He named SportsU as an example of an athletics communication platform the district endorses and flagged Snapchat as a persistent challenge for student-to-student communication outside school.

Committee members asked about peripheral devices; Herdy said smartwatches and earbuds are also restricted, though staff are reconsidering earbuds in some cases. He said the district purchased classroom digital cameras to avoid allowing phone use as a classroom workaround and noted principals keep authority to grant limited exceptions.

Herdy told the committee the district surveyed families before implementation and received “about 80%” favorable responses, which he said encouraged the union to move forward. He also urged keeping any statewide requirement simple to avoid additional costs or administrative burdens on teachers.

The testimony was presented to inform deliberations on House Bill 54, a proposal described at the hearing as banning personal cellphones and electronic devices during school hours in Vermont schools. No committee action or vote on the bill was recorded during this testimony.