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Caswell County Schools narrows student device rules, board approves K–12 restriction with smartwatch language
Summary
The Caswell County Board approved changes to the student device policy to limit wireless communications across K–12 during instructional time and to add smartwatches to the prohibited-device language; the board requested clearer exception language for medical devices and teacher-authorized instructional use.
The Caswell County Board of Education approved an updated student-device policy that restricts use of cell phones and similar wireless devices during the instructional day across K–12 and explicitly adds smartwatches to the prohibited-device list.
Administration said the proposed language is intended to reduce classroom distractions. “So therefore, from the start of the day to end of the day, no cell phones,” said a staff member (speaker 5) while explaining the change and the shift from a K–8 to a K–12 rule. Board members discussed how to handle medical devices, bus and before/after-care periods and whether teachers or administrators should be authorized to permit device use for instructional purposes.
Board members pressed staff to clarify narrow exceptions. Members noted that medical devices such as insulin pumps must remain accessible and asked for explicit handbook language: staff agreed to preserve medical exemptions already reflected in individualized plans. Members also asked for an operational definition of “out of sight,” and whether students in before-school or after-care programs would be covered. Administration said the policy would be revised to specify the instructional day timing and to keep an emergency/medical exception.
The board also sought a clearer supervisory approach for teachers and administrators when authorizing device use for instruction. One board member said that authorizing teachers wholesale risks permitting device use as an informal reward at the end of class; administration proposed amending the paragraph to state that only administrators may grant authorization for instructional use and that teachers’ requests be handled through administrators.
The motion to adopt the policy with the described changes carried on the board floor; the meeting record shows the motion passed with a board roll-style count recorded afterwards (see provenance). The administration said it will return a revised, exact text for final reading and will circulate a consistent definition of the instructional day and device exceptions ahead of implementation.
What happens next: Staff will prepare a clean revised policy text reflecting the agreed definitions for the instructional day, medical-device exceptions and the authorization pathway for instructional use, and will bring that revised text to the board at the next scheduled meeting.
