Northern Burlington to pilot lockable phone pouches to comply with new state ban on in-school phone use

During the May 4 meeting Superintendent Dr. Zuckermanman told trustees that a New Jersey law taking effect in the 2026-27 school year will prohibit students from using cell phones during the school day and that the district must choose an implementation approach. Administration evaluated software/app-based controls but raised concerns that students might delete apps or otherwise circumvent them.

As an alternative, the district will pilot lockable phone pouches at the high school starting in September. Under the proposed procedure, students will place phones in a pouch when they enter the building; pouches lock during the day and are released at dismissal using a magnetic unlock station. If a student forgets a pouch, their phone would be placed in a sealed, labeled envelope in the main office for retrieval at the end of the day. The administration estimated high-school pouch procurement at about $30,000 and proposed purchasing roughly 100 pouches to start.

Administration recommended maintaining the middle-school's current procedures rather than moving middle grades to pouch use immediately. The superintendent said the district will share procedures with families for communicating urgent messages to students and will pilot the pouch approach in a small group before full implementation. Trustees asked whether the district could seek an exemption from the state's unfunded mandate process; administration said the district could request review but that declining to enforce the law would put the district in violation.

Board members discussed equity and enforcement concerns and requested feedback from the pilot; administrators agreed to provide committee updates and to share the pilot results at the May 18 community relations meeting and the June 8 board meeting.