East Meadow board adopts state-required student device policy, 5-0

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…