State Superintendent Ellen Weaver talks to reporters after a State Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — South Carolina school districts must ban students from using their cellphones during the entire school day, but exactly how they go about it is up to district officials, according to a policy the state Board of Education passed Tuesday.
At the very least, districts must require students to keep their phones and connected devices, such as smartwatches, turned off and in their backpacks or lockers from the time the first bell rings in the morning until the dismissal bell in the afternoon, according to the state policy. But the state board said districts can decide whether to enact sterner rules, as well as the consequences for violating them.
Districts that do not put a policy in place that is at least as strict as the one the state board passed Tuesday could lose their state funding.
“We’re saying, ‘This is what state law says, and so you’ve got to implement it,’ but we are leaving a lot of discretion, a lot of latitude, to districts on how exactly they do it,” board member Christian Hanley said.
The decision follows a clause the Legislature included in the state spending plan requiring the state board to create a policy prohibiting cell phones for K-12 students in the state’s public schools. The specifics, legislators left up to the board, which in turn left many of the details to local school boards.
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Although state board members supported the idea of banning cellphones in schools, they said they worried about unintended consequences of the new policy, such as putting another task on overworked teachers, increasing the number of out-of-school suspensions or cutting students off from their parents during emergencies.
“Implementation of such a policy over a school day scares me,” said board chair David O’Shields. “Why? Because once we create this policy, it is the requirement of every district to follow suit, and there is the law of unintended consequences, and it frightens me.”
School boards will have until January to put in place a policy at least as strict as the one the state board enacted, according to a memo the department sent to superintendents in June. District must submit those policies to the department to ensure compliance.
The state board, which passed the policy 15-1, added a stipulation that districts must report back about how implementation went in case the board finds a need to adjust its policy ahead of next school year.
“All of these things look good, but just because it looks good doesn’t mean it is good.” O’Shields said.
The policy
In the state policy, the board did decide lunch and other breaks should be considered part of the school day, meaning students must leave their cell phones stowed away during those times.
Districts may choose to take it further telling students not to bring their devices to school at all. Or they can buy lockable pouches to store them. Some may also decide to include bus rides, field trips or athletic events as times when students can not access their phones, according to the policy.
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The policy also leaves room for exceptions.
If students have an assignment they cannot complete on school-provided devices, districts can allow students to keep their phones with them to use as part of their classwork.
Students with disabilities who need access to phones or tablets to learn would still be allowed to use the devices. And students with certain outside jobs, such as volunteer firefighters, can seek a written exception from their superintendent to use their phone during the day, according to the policy.
Enforcement also will largely be up to school districts. The policy requires “disciplinary enforcement procedures,” with increasing consequences for repeat offenders, but it doesn’t specify what that means.
State board members did discourage using out-of-school suspension as punishment for violating the policy. Taking a student out of school because they are breaking a rule meant to keep them focused on their classwork feels counterintuitive, said state Superintendent Ellen Weaver.
“The whole idea behind this policy is that we want students in classrooms getting instruction,” Weaver told reporters. “Taking students out of that instructional space really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense as far as I’m concerned.”
Still, different situations may warrant different punishments, so board members wanted to leave that decision up to the districts, said board member David Mathis.
Timing
Some board members felt they did not have enough time to create the policy. Board member Beverly Frierson was the sole “no” vote, not because she disagreed with it but because she thought the board was too rushed to give the policy the consideration it needed, she said.
O’Shields, the board chair, worried teachers may have to spend to much time policing cellphones. Still, he agreed some kind of action was necessary.
“I know we need control, and there is an addiction, no doubt,” O’Shields said.
The policy has support from legislators, teachers’ advocates and Gov. Henry McMaster. Since 2020, McMaster has included this clause in his state budget recommendations. This was the first time legislators agreed to put it in the final plan.
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“The research is clear,” McMaster wrote in a letter to the board Tuesday. “Removing access to personal electronic devices during the school day improves student academic performance and removes distractions that exacerbate anxiety among our adolescents.”
“Our responsibility is to create an environment where teachers can teach, and students can learn,” the letter continued.
In a statewide survey the education department conducted, 55% of teachers and administrators who responded said they supported a total ban on cellphones during the school day. Another 37% said they wanted students to have limited access during class time, with the chance to check their phones between classes or at lunch.
Along with being distracting while students are trying to learn, phones can erode their social skills and encourage bullying, Weaver said.
“I think the dividend that we will see this pay for schools and for our students’ future will be worth it in the end,” Weaver said.