Vermont committee hears Connecticut official on cell‑phone guidelines, special‑education exceptions

Aaron Benham, vice chair of the Connecticut State Board of Education, told the Vermont House Education Committee on April 30, 2025, about Connecticut—s approach to regulating student cell‑phone use and lessons that could inform Vermont—s debate over H.54, the "cell phone free schools" bill.

Benham said Connecticut adopted nonbinding guidelines in August and deliberately stopped short of a statewide ban, instead urging districts to adopt grade‑specific policies. "We were not prepared to go with a school ban on cell phones for the state of Connecticut," he said, and the board made clear the guidelines "were not set in stone" so districts could report problems and request tweaks.

The guidelines divide expectations by grade level, with more leniency at the high‑school level. Benham said districts reported that high‑school courses such as physics sometimes rely on phones for specific curricular activities, and that some special‑education needs and medical devices now route alerts through phones, creating a need for narrowly written exceptions.

Benham told the committee…