Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Hb57 Wireless Device Policies topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee approves amendment and forwards House Bill 57 on school wireless-device policies
Summary
The House Education Committee approved an amendment requiring districts to report how they implemented wireless-device policies and the effect on student behavior and achievement, and then moved House Bill 57 out of committee as amended.
The House Education Committee on March 12 approved an amendment to House Bill 57 that would require school districts to report to the Department of Education and Early Development the policy each district adopted under the bill and observed effects on student academic achievement and behavior. After adopting the amendment by roll-call vote, the committee moved the bill out of committee.
The amendment passed on a roll-call vote, 4 yeas to 3 nays (Representative Schwanke — No; Representative Elam — No; Representative Divert — Yes; Representative Eisheid — Yes; Representative Underwood — No; Co-chair Representative Andy Storey — Yes; Co-chair Representative Himshoo — Yes). Committee members debated how prescriptive the required report should be; supporters said a one-time report would allow districts and the department to compare implementation approaches and outcomes, while opponents warned that open-ended reporting could produce inconsistent data.
Sponsor Rep. Zach Fields and amendment proponents described the change as a low-burden way to gather implementation details from districts that have already experimented with phone-restriction strategies (for example, pocket pouches or off-campus lockers) so other districts may learn what works. Representative Storey said the amendment was intended to let districts describe how they implemented the policy and what effects they saw, and that DEED could summarize findings across districts.
After adopting the amendment, Representative Fields moved the committee substitute for House Bill 57 (LS 0064 I) as amended; the committee approved the motion and voted to report the bill from committee without a recorded roll call on the final motion. The bill will proceed to the next legislative stage under the House rules.
Committee members emphasized implementation differences between districts and asked DEED and the sponsor to coordinate on the report format to avoid creating an unfunded compliance burden for districts. The amendment specifies the report is to describe the local policy adopted under the bill and the observed effects on achievement and behavior; it does not prescribe precise metrics in the statute text passed by the committee.
The committee set no further deadlines in the hearing and closed the item for March 12.
