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Advisory council recommends restricting high school cell phone use; board to consider implementation in spring
Summary
A District advisory council recommended restricting cellphone use for grades 9–11, allowing seniors more privilege, and developing education and logistics for a fall rollout. The board asked staff for implementation details and a follow-up report in March.
The Darien Board of Education's advisory council on student mobile-device use recommended restricting students' personal cell phone use in classrooms for grades 9–11, allowing limited senior exemption and recognizing exceptions for specific academic settings such as art classes where phones are used as cameras.
The council — a mix of students, staff, parents and administrators — surveyed staff, students and families and reviewed regional practices. Superintendent Alan Adley and committee chairs said staff and parents reported a high negative impact of cell phones on student learning; nearly two-thirds of staff and the majority of parents indicated stricter guidelines would improve the learning environment.
"We know that our incoming ninth grade will have had a successful transition to a no-cell-phone day at the middle school," the presentation noted, referencing the middle-school practice that served as a model for the high-school advisory work.
The advisory council recommended three work streams for the remainder of the school year: communicating and educating families and staff about changes; piloting or modeling low-device experiences (an "Away for the Day" concept); and working through the logistics and enforcement details for implementation. The council advised a phased approach, with final implementation targeted for the start of the next school year and a further implementation review in March.
Board members asked for more detail about senior exemptions, how students would manage schedules and apps used for organization, and technical approaches to limit messaging when students pair phones with district laptops. The committee agreed to return with responses to those questions and a fuller implementation plan.
No policy vote was taken. Board members noted the recommendation was advisory and that the board could adopt a policy if it wished to override or formalize the council's work.
Why it matters: Device practices affect daily classroom management, student attention and social-emotional interactions. The council framed the change as supporting in-person learning while recognizing students' growing independence.
Next steps: The board asked the committee to provide additional implementation detail, including enforcement mechanisms and supports to help students manage schedules without phones; the committee will report back in March with technical and operational proposals.
