Faribault School Board considers more restrictive policy on cellphones in class

With the Minnesota Legislature potentially about to approve legislation that would require every school district to adopt a comprehensive policy on cellphone use, the Faribault School Board is taking steps to get ahead of the curve.

Co-sponsored in standalone form by local Rep. Brian Daniels, R-Faribault, legislation requiring all districts to adopt a cellphone use policy by March 15, 2025 has been rolled into the education policy omnibus bill which passed the House a month ago.

Should the proposal survive a conference committee with the Senate and be enacted into law, the Minnesota School Boards Association would be expected to lead the way, with the law directing the MSBA to craft a model cell phone use policy by Dec. 15.

Whatever the Legislature decides, board member Jerry Robicheau said it’s time for FPS to replace the existing patchwork of policies and attitudes towards cellphone use, which can vary from building to building and even classroom to classroom, with a single unified policy.

Robicheau said that, when left poorly regulated, cellphone use in the classroom both exacerbates the mental health challenges faced by a growing number of students and represents a massive, constant distraction for many more.

“Research shows that it takes a good period of time, if interrupted to do a text, to come back and focus; it takes time to do that,” Robicheau said. “Now, I’ve lost some valuable instructional time because of that.”

Notably, while Faribault Public Schools may not have a single unified policy regarding cellphone use, Policy 524 does set the expectation that school internet is to be used strictly for educational purposes. Using the internet to access materials “that could cause damage or danger of disruption to the educational process” was deemed unacceptable.

Over the last five years, Faribault Public Schools has also taken a proactive approach to avoiding electronic distractions through a partnership with LiveMore ScreenLess. With peer educators leading the way, the program has helped encourage students to have healthier, more balanced relationships with electronic devices both at school and at home.

Some school buildings have already moved to couple that positive, educational approach with policies that strictly restrict student cellphone access during the school day. At Faribault Middle School, students are not allowed to have their cellphone on in class, with the school handbook stating the phone must either be turned off or left in the locker or at home.

While the Board was able to reach a consensus that staff should begin looking into a districtwide cell phone use policy, some members were interested in adopting the kind of strict policy the Middle School currently has while others expressed concerns.

Board Member Lynda Boudreau said that before moving forward with any proposal, she’d want to hear much more feedback from students and teachers. She also suggested that given the vastly different needs of different aged learners, some flexibility might not be a bad idea.

“Whether it’s a good thing is to be determined in my view, because I haven’t heard from teachers,” Boudreau said. “Maybe there’s a group of teachers that are not happy but I think each level of our schools — Elementary is much different than High School and Middle School.”

Boudreau added that many of the more egregious abuses cited by other board members as justification for a new policy, such as taking phones into the restroom or using Snapchat in the classroom, would likely already be prohibited under current policy.

In order for any new policy to be effective, it would need to be well enforced, and that could be a challenge as well. While acknowledging that cellphones could be a major distraction, board Vice Chair Chad Wolff said many staff members don’t have much appetite to be the “cellphone police.”

In order to implement a new policy on cellphones in time for the upcoming school year, the district will have to move quickly. Bente said there could potentially be time for a survey, but he predicted that parents would overwhelmingly be in favor of a stricter policy.

Wolff questioned Bente’s expectations, saying that many Faribault parents, including his own wife, would potentially be hesitant to embrace strict cellphone restrictions, because of concerns that it would make it much harder to contact their children in case of an emergency.

“They don’t want our cellphones in the classroom until it affects their kids,” Wolff said. “Then when they need to get ahold of their kid, what do they do?”

In the Faribault Middle School Handbook, parents who need to contact their kids during the day are instructed to call the middle school office. With each room having its own phone, parents can be connected quickly with their student’s teacher in case of an emergency.

Board member Richard Olson suggested going even further than the middle school policy by barring cellphones from the school grounds altogether. However, Bente said that such a policy would probably be frowned upon by FPS’s attorneys.