At a special emergency meeting called to meet an Aug. 1 deadline, the East Meadow Union Free School District Board of Education voted 5-0 to waive a second reading and adopt Policy 56 95, Students and Personal Electronic Devices.

The policy responds to recent amendments in state education law and requires elementary students to silence and store devices in a cubby and secondary students to silence and store devices in school lockers. Mr. Rosner, a district staff member who introduced the item, said the district must adopt the policy by the deadline and that most of Policy 56 95 "comes directly from education law" and model guidance from NISBA.

Board members and staff said the policy tracks what many neighboring districts are doing and described specific local implementation details. The policy discourages elementary students from bringing personal devices to school; any device brought by an elementary student "must be silenced and stored in the individual student's cubby," Mr. Rosner said. For secondary schools, the policy requires devices to be silenced and stored in lockers; the draft language removed backpacks/book bags after staff were told those were not sufficiently secure under the applicable law.

Mr. Rosner said progressive discipline for noncompliance is written into the policy with first through fifth instances specified. He also described two formal exceptions: health-related exceptions handled through a 504 process and limited childcare-related exceptions for students who must be reachable for family reasons. The district plans building-level guidance to operationalize the exceptions and communication procedures.

The district intends to invest in universal locks for student lockers rather than rely on individually issued magnetic pouches (often known by brand names such as Yondr). Mr. Rosner said the district expects to secure roughly $40,000 in funds to support locker locks; he described magnetic pouch systems as infeasible for a large high school because of the time required for students to check devices in and out. "You'd have a line of what would be 1,400 students at East Meadow High School trying to get out and exit while getting their cell phones out of their yond pouch," Mr. Rosner said.

During public comment, Erin Horowitz, a student at East Meadow High School, said staff pouches previously used in classrooms initially worked but became unreliable and that some classroom-to-student communications use the Remind app. Horowitz said logging and communications problems with Remind have affected students' ability to get announcements. Mr. Rosner acknowledged the Remind issue and said the district would look into it.

Trustee Miss DeLuca expressed concern about clarifying "bell to bell" language to mean the official start-to-end of the school day rather than only class periods, and she stressed the need to notify parents that out-of-school communication will be limited while the policy is in effect. Mr. Rosner said each building will send a letter explaining how families can contact the main office and the procedures for reaching students during the school day.

The board also discussed expectations for staff behavior around phones so that adult device use in view of students does not create confusion or perceived unfairness. The policy will be reassessed after rollout and adjusted if needed, Mr. Rosner said.

Procedurally, the board cited Policy 3301 to waive the second reading; with five trustees present of seven, the board voted to waive the second reading and adopt Policy 56 95. The vote was recorded as 5-0 in favor. The meeting adjourned after the vote.

The board plans to reconvene on Aug. 6 and staff said they will distribute building-level guidance and a community letter after the policy adoption.