Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Discipline Policy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board reviews draft cell-phone policy; middle schools proposed to lock phones in pouches all day
Summary
Trustees heard a reading of draft policy 6123 and a related change to the district code of conduct that would require middle-school students to have phones locked in pouches all day and high-school students to use class-by-class pouches; the policy is connected to Senate Bill 106 and will return for a vote next month.
The Appoquinimink School District board reviewed a draft district cell-phone policy (6123) Tuesday that would limit student phone use during instructional time and add language to the student code of conduct requiring middle-school students to keep phones locked in pouches for the entire school day and high-school students to use pouches class by class. The board took the item as a reading; trustees will vote at a future meeting.
Presenters said the policy aligns with Senate Bill 106 (pending in the House), which would add a requirement to Title 14 for districts to restrict and communicate limits on student phone use. "One of the big things that we'd like to limit is instructional time," said the staff presenter during the reading. The draft updates the code of conduct (chapter 1) to make the pouch language explicit for print and online versions of the code.
Trustees and staff discussed results from a high-school pilot that ran roughly two and a half months. Staff said the pilot provided primarily perception and behavior data rather than a robust academic pre/post comparison. "Students were on task more," a staff presenter said of pilot observations, and schools implementing the pouches reported fewer hallway incidents and a decline in fights and cyberbullying that staff linked to reduced unsupervised phone access. The district did not pilot the all-day middle-school model; staff said pouches used at the high-school level could be passed down to middle schools and that tiered interventions already use pouches for a small number of students who repeatedly violate phone rules.
Board members asked about costs and funding. Staff said existing pouches remain available from last year with attrition as the main ongoing cost; the bill that inspired the policy included a proposed $500,000 statewide funding line, and districts would likely apply for shares of that appropriation if it is enacted. The board asked for heavy communication plans to families ahead of the fall start and for the pouch and enforcement language to be included in the printed and online code of conduct and in staff/students' fall presentations.
The policy reading and the code-of-conduct changes are procedural steps; trustees did not vote on the policy Tuesday and will consider final approval at a subsequent meeting.
