CVSD convenes phone‑free schools study team; recommendations expected in December

The Champlain Valley Unified School District announced on Sept. 17 that a phone‑free schools study team convened Sept. 10 to examine policies and practices around student cell‑phone use.

The team includes five principals, four teachers and three students, and plans to add a digital learning lead and mental‑health representation to the group. Administrators described three approaches under review: (1) limiting phones to structured, supervised academic spaces; (2) an "away for the day" approach in which phones remain on the student27s person but out of sight for most of the day; and (3) a bell‑to‑bell phone‑free model that removes phones from student possession during school hours.

The study team will review research, disciplinary and behavioral data and field visits to schools with existing policies. "The goal is to come back to this board in December, and it may not be policy; it could be procedure recommendations," the administrator said. The team plans to produce a self‑audit tool, conduct school visits and consider feasibility differences between elementary, middle and high school settings.

Why it matters: district leaders said younger grades and preK–8 communities generally favor more restrictive approaches, while high‑school responses vary. Any recommendation will weigh student well‑being, instructional goals and feasibility for a large high school population.

Next steps: the team will dig into brain‑science research and data correlations between phone use and disciplinary incidents, then present findings and suggested next steps to the board in December.