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Platte County School District #1 board hears committee recommendation for stricter student cell-phone limits
Summary
A district committee proposed a policy to ban phones for K— students and require phones for grades 6— to be turned off and left in backpacks, with progressive disciplinary steps; board members asked the policy committee to review and gather staff and parent input before formal readings.
At a work session, the Platte County School District #1 board reviewed preliminary recommendations from a cell-phone committee that would sharply limit student access to personal cellular devices.
Diane, who presented the committee's findings, said the group proposed that any policy adopted would take effect in the 2025—6 school year and would ban cellular devices entirely for kindergarten through fifth grade. For grades six through eight, devices would need to be turned off upon entering the building and remain in backpacks. In high school, students would be required to turn phones off at arrival but could access them during the lunch period, the committee suggested. "We feel there should be no cellular devices at all" for K—, Diane said.
The committee outlined progressive consequences: a first offense would draw a verbal warning; a second offense would require confiscation and return to the student at the end of the school day; a third offense would require a parent or guardian to retrieve the device; and a fourth offense would result in the device being held for five school days.
Board members and staff raised implementation questions. One member asked whether the district had a "legal leg to stand on" to ban phones and whether the proposal would revise existing policy IIBH/IBH. Speaker 2 urged consistency, arguing teachers who are actively instructing should not be using phones so expectations are uniform between staff and students. "You can't have gray area," a teacher said during the discussion.
Parents and teachers told the board they supported clearer rules but warned about emergency access and operational exceptions. A teacher and multiple parents said staff need phone access in some lab settings, for emergencies and to contact the office; one parent noted that, in other districts, a backpack-only rule was "liberating" for teachers and parents once it was enforced consistently.
Board members agreed the proposal should move to the policy committee for review and revision, including gathering more input from staff and families. Speaker 13 explained the regular path: policy committee review, first reading, second reading and public comment before adoption. No formal motion or vote occurred at the work session.
The board asked staff to collect additional information on enforcement logistics, legal constraints and examples from other Wyoming districts; several members expressed concern about the five-day confiscation period and anticipated significant parental pushback if that provision remained.
Next steps: the district will refer the draft to the policy committee, which will solicit staff and parental input and return a refined proposal to a future workshop for board consideration and, if approved for a formal reading, public comment.
