Conroe ISD: Board says state-mandated cell-phone policy largely working as planned

A Conroe ISD board member said trustees received a report on the implementation of a state-mandated student cell-phone policy and that, overall, students are complying.

"Our students are becoming compliant to the regulation and they're engaging a whole lot more with each other," a board member said during closing remarks about the June meeting.

District staff supplied data during the discussion. "When I asked last night, we have approximately 22,000 high schoolers across the district. And in those 22,000 students we have 68 across the district that have nine or more infractions," said Dr. Moral.

Board members characterized the policy's classroom effects as positive: teachers reported less distraction and more student attention to instruction. At the same time, trustees acknowledged a small number of students continue to struggle with compliance; one board member said some "just have a hard time" learning to separate from phones.

The trustees did not vote to adopt additional disciplinary rules during this meeting; the discussion was a report on implementation of the state mandate rather than a local policy adoption. Board members said they will continue monitoring infractions and classroom impacts.

Next steps: the district will continue enforcement and monitoring. No new disciplinary motions or vote tallies were recorded in the transcript.