Phone-free schools legislation: saved by the bell-to-bell?
Who remembers Zack Morris, Kelly Kapowski, and the whole gang at The Max? Am I dating myself? 😬
As you recall the nostalgia for the cool kids of Saved by the Bell in their sweet jeans, bright spandex, and ubiquitous giant bangs, you know what wasn’t ubiquitous at The Max? Smartphones. There were exactly zero students with necks bent at ninety degrees and noses buried in screens. Wasn’t it a beautiful thing?
Pending phone-free schools legislation in Harrisburg
Our Pennsylvania State elected leaders are working to pass legislation to make school hallways and cafeterias look more like The Max and less like screen-infested scroll fests. The proposed legislation prohibits cell phones in school from “Bell to Bell.”
Recently, the Pennsylvania State Senate passed Senate Bill No 1014: Phone-Free Schools by a vote of 46-1. That’s some serious bipartisan support!
The bill was sponsored by a Republican and co-sponsored by 7 additional Republicans and 12 Democrats, including Senator John Kane (our local district senator). Thanks, John! 🥳
Quick summary on the Phone-Free Schools bill:
- Starts 2027-2028 school year
- Bill relates to student possession and use of mobile devices during the school day while on school property (the bill is silent on restrictions related to teacher limitations)
- Prohibited use includes instructional and non-instructional time (lunch, recess, time between classes, etc.)
- Prohibited devices include phones, watches, and other mobile electronic devices capable of:
- connecting to the internet
- making a call or sending a message/data/images
- recording/playing/editing audio or video
- playing games
- watching video
- Use of school-issued devices is not impacted by this policy
- The district sets its own policies to comply with the law
- Exceptions for medical necessity or IEP accommodations
- A school administrator may grant a policy waiver for up to 24 hours (e.g., for field trips or special events).
What’s next?
The bill will head to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for committee review, consideration, and, eventually, a floor vote. If it passes, it will move on to Governor Shapiro’s desk. He’s already indicated he would sign it.
📞 If you support this bill, call our state reps to let them know. Heck, tell your spouse, parents, grandparents, cousins, friends, and neighbors to call too! Shameless plug: You can forward this article to make passing along the details easy-peasy. 😁
Contact Rep. Craig Williams
Call or email Representative Craig Williams to let him know how you feel and ask him to vote in favor of the legislation. You can reach his office here: call his Chadds Ford office at 610-358-5925 or email using this contact form. Share whatever message resonates with you. If you need a script, consider something like this:
Hello Representative Williams,
My name is [NAME]. I am a constituent and live in Chadds Ford. I am requesting that you vote to approve SB 1014 Phone-Free Schools with the Robinson amendment1 when it comes up for a vote in the House. Please oppose any broad exceptions that would weaken it (e.g. an emergency exception). [Add reason why it’s important to you. Can be brief.]
Thank you,
[NAME, ADDRESS]
Here’s another resource from PA Unplugged, a grassroots organization that advocates for distraction-free schools and stronger online safety for kids, with additional prompts to contact local legislators about bell-to-bell phone-free school policies.
Contact Senator John Kane
We often reach out to our elected officials when we want something from them. They’re people too, and it’s nice to let them know when we appreciate what they’ve done. If you support Kane’s co-sponsorship and vote for this bill, call or email him here and let him know. I bet you can write the script for this one yourself. 💛
Other reps in Unionville-Chadds Ford?
Not everyone in the district is represented by Williams and/or Kane. If you’re not sure who represents you in Harrisburg, use this tool from the Pennsylvania General Assembly to find their names and contact information.
How does the state legislation compare with UCF’s current policy?
Unionville-Chadds Ford School District manages the “phones in school” situation under Policy 237: Personal Electronic Devices. After advocacy from a group of parents called Slowtech UCF (which includes me! 🙋🏻♀️) pushed for stricter rules around student use of personal electronic devices in school, the school board updated Policy 237 about a year ago. In some ways, school policy already aligns with the proposed legislation; in others, the legislation would be more restrictive than current policy. Even where it aligns, I anticipate that the legislation (if passed) will give the current board policy more teeth.
For elementary schools, the legislation is slightly less restrictive than UCF’s policy. District policy is similar to the legislation, but also restricts the use of personal electronic devices on school buses.
For the middle school, the legislation largely aligns with Patton’s current school policy. Enforcement of the policy varies (depending on whom you ask), so students’ experience will probably feel a bit more restrictive if the state policy is enforced as written.
For the high school, the new legislation will feel quite a bit stricter. Currently, the high school only prohibits the use of personal electronic devices during instructional time (and enforcement seems to be hit-or-miss, again depending on who you ask).
Stricter limitations on personal electronic device use during non-instructional time, as proposed by the legislation, will likely cause some initial aggravation among students. But I believe it’s a worthwhile investment in adults knowing what’s best for our kids, even when they don’t always love it.
Furthermore, the high school has certain policies and informal practices that essentially assume students have access to phones during the day to contact their parents. The school would need to revisit these practices if the legislation passes.
Getting buy-in from kids (and parents!)
There’s growing research suggesting that kids don’t really want smartphones (and especially social media), but they feel socially obligated to be attached to them to be relevant to friends. I bet nearly every parent of a middle or high school student can attest to this unfortunate reality.
There’s a new book out that you might consider picking up called The Amazing Generation*. The author of The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt, partnered with Catherine Price to create this companion book for kids. The book encourages kids to be Rebels and follow the Rebels’ Code:
- Use technology as a tool, don’t let technology use you
- Fill your life with real friendship, freedom, and fun.
It weaves together a graphic novel story about kids who use technology in different ways with explainers about how tech works, who controls it, and why it is built the way it is. Its target audience is probably 3rd-8th grade, depending on the child’s maturity level, though I think there’s a lot of language that helps explain the impact of technology on our lives and is useful to people of all ages.
Connect with others in our local community to advocate for intentional tech use
If you want to advocate beyond contacting your local representatives to support the current legislation moving through the Pennsylvania General Assembly, consider connecting with SlowTech UCF. This is a grassroots group of UCFSD parents who share a passion for fostering healthy social norms around tech use and seek to collaborate with the district as parent representatives to intentionally incorporate technology into classrooms and the curriculum.
Can our kids be saved by the Bells?
I don’t mean to be hyperbolic, but smartphones are stealing children’s childhoods. Keeping phones out of schools isn’t a panacea for the problem, but it’s a start. Seven hours a day without their cellphones (and without the pressure from friends who have them at school) is better than carrying them around 24/7 and being tempted by distraction at every turn. In a small way, childhoods around the state might be “saved by the bell-to-bell” if the Pennsylvania House approves the legislation and Shapiro signs it.
I’d love to know what you think. Are you excited about a potential policy that would ban smartphones in schools? Why do you feel this way?
* This is an affiliate link. If you purchase the book through it, I earn a small commission. Use it or don’t. 🙂 Or grab the book from the library if that’s up your alley!
Footnote:
- The Robinson amendment allows a school administration to approve a request from a principal for a 24-hour waiver. ↩︎
