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Board to consider aligning district discipline with state cell‑phone law; buses to be discouraged but not banned
Summary
Staff will ask the board to adopt changes to policy JCD (aligning JCDAF) to implement state law restricting cell‑phone use during bell‑to‑bell instruction for K–8; the district will discourage phone use on buses but will not impose bus penalties; principals will be given guidance to limit inconsistent enforcement.
Chief of Staff George Gomez told the board that, following state action (House Bill 340), GCPS has updated local policy language to comply with the law’s K–8 cell‑phone restrictions and plans to ask the board to approve the JCD policy language at Thursday’s meeting rather than table it for 30 days because it is a compliance matter.
Gomez said the district previously adopted JCDAF to implement the law for K–8 schools and is now incorporating that language into the broader student code of conduct (JCD) so the policies are aligned. Transportation staff and district leaders clarified that the law and policy discourage use of phones on buses but stop short of instituting bus‑level penalties; the district will not enact punitive bus consequences at this time.
Implementation guidance: District officials said principals have created a discipline guide to support consistent implementation across schools, planned parent communications and a focus on training staff so that expectations are taught early and consequences are applied equitably. Board members raised concerns about historical disciplinary disproportionality and asked that the district monitor outcomes closely for race/ethnicity disparities.
Ending: The JCD policy change will be presented for approval on Thursday as a compliance action; staff will provide further details to board members before the business meeting and will monitor discipline data for disproportionality as the rule is implemented.
Quote: "This is a compliance policy because it's rooted in a law," Chief of Staff George Gomez said.
