As many North Carolina students return to school Monday, they'll have to get used to putting away their phones. A new state law aims to restrict cell phone use in schools statewide by requiring students to turn off their phones during class time.
Many individual schools and school districts have already tried various tactics to limit students' phone use. That ranges from putting charging stations at the back of a classroom where students can choose to leave their phone, to strict bans on use from bell-to-bell, to investing in expensive magnetic pouches that lock up phones throughout the day.
Last year, Durham School of the Arts required students to put their phones in plastic bags on hooks in front of their desks during class, so teachers could see that phones were put away. But eleventh-grader Noah Young says that didn't last long.
"Obviously, those plastic bags weren't so tough. They would pretty much get ripped within the first few days," Young said. "By the end of the school year, there was, like, no desk with any bags."
In his experience, his teachers still tried to prevent students from using their phones in ways that would be distracting, but would allow students to listen to music or check their phones quietly when they finished their work early.
"I think it'll be more enforced now that it's an actual law," Young said. "So I think it will help a little bit, but there will also be a lot of push back against it too."
Some North Carolina students have expressed push back against the policy — and skepticism of its effectiveness — on social media.
School boards are still tasked with deciding enforcement policies
As many school districts, including Wake County Schools and Durham Public Schools, try to implement the new law at the start of the new school year, what remains uncertain is how all school districts plan to enforce it.
This spring, many school boards monitored the progress of two bills in the North Carolina General Assembly that sought to ban student cell phone use during class statewide, and tried to pass policies that might align. The House's version was slightly more flexible than the Senate's version, which also requires consequences for violations.
The Wake County School Board of Education passed a cell phone policy that district officials say it will revise again to fully comply with the final version of the law, which is closer to the Senate's proposal. The school board's policy requires students to have their cell phones silenced and put away, while the state law requires their phones to be turned off during class.
The law says school districts must restrict the use of cell phones and mobile devices during instructional time — and create consequences for students who break the rules. It's now up to school boards to set those disciplinary measures, and they have until January to pass policies that align with the law.
Wake County Schools' policy says students who violate the policy will first receive a verbal warning, followed by temporary confiscation. If the pattern continues, a student's parents will be notified.
The law does include exceptions for using a device with a teacher's permission for educational purposes or in an emergency, with further exceptions for students with disabilities and medical conditions.
