The district's Policy Committee surveyed all campus principals and found a consensus across the district in favor of restricting use during instructional time periods, although opinions varied on an overall restriction to be implemented during lunch and passing periods, trustee David Hamilton said.
What’s changing?
The revisions state that while pre-K through first-grade students are not allowed to possess personal telecommunication devices at school or on district transportation, grades 2-12 are allowed to use their devices during transitionary and lunch periods.
Authorized district employees are allowed to confiscate devices if the use is prohibited according to district or campus-specific rules. The revision removed the fee to retrieve devices due to inconsistent enforcement across campuses, said Jaretha Jordan, deputy superintendent of teaching and learning.
The committee recommended that the use of devices to engage in academic dishonesty, promotion of bullying, or to share threats or inappropriate images would result in disciplinary action as outlined in existing Student Code of Conduct policies.
Zooming out
The revisions come months after Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath said in September that there was a relationship between student cellphone use and declining performance on state and national exams, urging schools to implement a ban.
In recent months, Lamar Consolidated ISD and Katy ISD have approved revisions to ban the use of telecommunication devices during noninstructional times.
Going forward
Other board members noted that the inconsistent enforcement of this district policy could discourage other schools from following the policies.
“I assure you everybody will not get the same consequences,” trustee Shirley Rose-Gilliam said. “There are different personalities in every school. There are different personalities of every principal. There are counselors. There are teachers.”
However, Jordan argued that the potential classroom outcomes “will dictate a lot of what campuses decide to do at their own discretion.” If a campus decides to attempt a cellphone policy, Jordan said “they’ll have the full support of the board to do that.”
