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Appoquinimink School District to pilot classroom cellphone locks at Appoquinimink High School after $48,504 DOE grant
Summary
The Appoquinimink School District board heard a report on a Department of Education-funded pilot to limit student cell phone access in participating classes at Appoquinimink High School using Yonder pouches. The district will collect pre- and post-surveys and begin a staggered rollout after the winter break.
The Appoquinimink School District on Dec. 10 reported plans to pilot a classroom cellphone program at Appoquinimink High School after the district received a $48,504 grant from the Delaware Department of Education.
District staff said the pilot will use Yonder-brand lockable pouches that students keep on their person during class; participating teachers will lock and unlock phones each period with a magnetic base. The pilot will be class-by-class: students in a participating teacher's class must take part, while students in nonparticipating teachers' classes will follow normal phone rules. The district plans pre- and post-surveys provided by the Department of Education this winter and spring to measure student well-being, mental health and academic outcomes, with follow-up surveys slated for April and May.
The pilot team reported 37 teachers at Appoquinimink High School volunteered to participate out of roughly 100 teachers at that campus. Staff said implementation support will include in‑person training from a Yonder implementation specialist, a draft procedures document for schools, and multiple layers of communications: a districtwide notice, a school-level message, and teacher-level classroom communications to families.
Board members raised procedural questions during the update. One board member asked how phones would be unlocked in emergencies; staff replied that office phones and staff members would handle urgent communications and said law‑enforcement officials and researchers the district consulted generally prefer students not have phone access during active emergencies because it can complicate response efforts and jam lines. Staff also said the pouch system can unlock all phones quickly if evacuation or mass unlocking is needed.
Staff emphasized the pilot will not begin immediately after the break for all classes. Because of differing class schedules and semester changes, some teachers who teach yearlong or AB schedules may begin as early as Jan. 6, 2025; most participating teachers will start a staggered rollout on Jan. 28, 2025, to avoid mid‑semester disruptions. District presenters said they opted against locking phones all day midyear to avoid abrupt changes for students and families.
District staff also noted that the Department of Education issued the grant opportunity in August and the district submitted its application on Sept. 4; the award was received Oct. 4, 2024. Staff said the pilot remains in an initial phase, with a meeting scheduled for the 37 participating teachers the morning after the board meeting to finalize daily procedures.
No formal board action was requested that evening; the cell phone presentation was a report to the board. Staff said the pilot is intended to inform statewide guidance expected from the Department of Education in spring 2025.
"There is always that fear when you're restricting any kind of phone usage that what happens if there's an emergency," a board member said during the discussion. Staff: "In an emergency, staff members are the ones that have the correct information ... it can happen in a matter of, you know, probably under a minute. We can have all phones unlocked."
