Arkansas school districts consider implementing new state cell phone, mental health program

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More than 200 Arkansas school districts have expressed interest in a new pilot program to reduce cell phone access with the goal of improving students’ mental health, according to the Arkansas Department of Education.

In early July, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Education Secretary Jacob Oliva issued a letter to superintendents inviting them to participate in the program, which grew out of a meeting with school leaders in June centered on mental health.

As part of the pilot program, the University of Arkansas’ Office for Education Policy will examine how students’ mental health may be impacted by reduced access to cell phones and social media. A smaller group of districts from the pilot program will participate in the UA study.

Cell phone policies at Arkansas schools vary among districts and individual classrooms. While some teachers collect phones at the start of instructional time, others allow students to access their devices after completing assignments.

Bentonville West High School piloted a program last year that required cell phones to be silenced and stored during class. Bentonville School District Director of Communications Leslee Wright said the initiative was a “remarkable success,” with 86% of staff reporting a positive impact. Administrators also recorded a 57% reduction in verbal or physical aggression offenses and a 51% reduction in drug-related offenses, she said.

Bentonville High School is developing its own program modeled off the one implemented at Bentonville West, which will continue its program this fall, Wright said. Meanwhile, all middle and junior high schools in the district will participate in the state’s pilot program.

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Additionally, the district has tracked computer screen time for two years “to identify some limitations, knowing that face-to-face instruction, activity and play are necessary for healthy development,” she said.

“We believe there’s significant value in reducing screen time for our students, whether on laptops or cell phones,” Wright said.

Arkansas’ pilot program will provide funding for phone storage devices to reduce screen time and social media use during the school day, according to a press release . More exposure to social media increases kids’ risk of mental health problems, Sanders and Oliva wrote in their letter.

More than 200,000 students could be affected by the program, ADE spokeswoman Kimberly Mundell said. Interested districts submitted information to ADE through their education cooperatives, and based on the initial estimate, ADE will request $8 million in appropriation, she said.

An initial small group of schools interested in the pilot “that were further down the road” in implementing cell phone policy changes will be reimbursed directly, Mundell said. The pilot was opened to all districts as interest grew, so those districts will be reimbursed through the co-ops, she said.

The program will also provide funding for telehealth mental health services, as well as support in locating mental health providers and navigating insurance matters, according to the release. All districts will have access to the telehealth services and the process for accessing the funds will be determined after a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is completed, Mundell said.

Bethany Ratermann, senior director of communications for LISA Academy Public Charter Schools, said final funding amounts will determine the exact number of students who participate, but they would like to include 6-12th graders.

LISA Academy, which operates 11 schools on nine campuses across Arkansas, decided to implement the pilot as a way to prioritize students’ mental health as the charter organization works “to educate well rounded students as part of our updated LISA 2.0 program model,” Ratermann said.

Administrators hope to learn more about home usage through family feedback, and look forward to working with the U of A “to analyze this survey data and hope to arrive at conclusions that will benefit all students,” she said.

The possibility of a reduction in issues with bullying, mental health and drugs, as well as interest from principals and the ability to purchase lockable devices for free were all reasons participating in the pilot program appealed to the DeQueen School District, Superintendent Jason Sanders said.

DeQueen’s school board on Monday approved participation in the pilot, which will be implemented at the middle school and junior high campuses. Students in 6-9th grade will receive YONDR pouches that will be magnetically locked while on campus, but parents can still see where their child is on apps like Live 360, Sanders said.

“Of course nothing is perfect, and we will have to work around some challenges such as Apple watches and dummy phones put in the pouches,” he said. “We also approved a policy for those campuses reflecting such.”

DeQueen’s previous policy required middle and junior high students to secure their phones on their person, backpack or locker during the instructional day. Sanders said he’ll be interested to compare the data on mental health referrals and discipline between school years with lockable devices and those without.

Research study

The effect of cell phones and social media on students’ mental health has become a hot topic, but there haven’t been many peer-reviewed studies on the issue, said Sarah McKenzie, executive director of the University of Arkansas’ Office for Education Policy.

Besides being a newer issue, another problem is “everything intersects, so it’s hard to find causal evidence about things,” McKenzie said.

“For all the talk about it, there hasn’t been any actual research, or much actual research about how this would impact kids,” she said. “It’s mostly been anecdotal.”

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McKenzie is working with Kristin Higgins, Department Head of Counseling, Leadership and Research Methods at the U of A, to develop a year-long study about the effects of the pilot program on students’ mental health. McKenzie said their research will involve focus groups with students, teachers and parents, and interviews with superintendents about the implementation of the pilot program.

Research will also include the administration of a short, general depression and anxiety screener to students in the fall and at the end of the academic year to see if there’s a reduction in feelings of unhappiness, she said.

“The idea is if they’re paying more attention in class and they’re feeling less anxious then they’re going to learn more,” she said.

Analyzing learning data won’t occur until after test scores are released later in 2025, McKenzie said. However, preliminary results from the initial surveys and focus groups should be available before the new year, providing a baseline prior to implementation of the pilot. The final report on student survey outcomes will likely be released next summer, she said.

Calls for more research on this topic are occurring at the national level. U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, and Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, introduced legislation in November to require the U.S. Department of Education to “conduct a study regarding the use of mobile devices in elementary and secondary schools, and to establish a pilot program of awarding grants to enable certain schools to create a school environment free of mobile devices.”

The study in that bill, which was referred to committee, could take a long time to complete, McKenzie said.

“In the spirit of [the Office for Education Policy], our idea is to try to get the information to the people who need it as quickly as possible in the best way we can,” she said. “I imagine there will be a lot more studies, but this one should add to the knowledge that we have so far, which is actually not very much.”

Restriction considerations

At the Fayetteville School District, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Courtney Morawski said the ongoing conversation around cell phones now is “how do we protect instructional time in a manageable way” while honoring new research that says there should be restrictions in place.

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Fayetteville will implement the state pilot program (most likely in 7-12th grades) in the upcoming school year, “a transition year,” with the goal of having phone restrictions for the entire day for all K-12 students during the 2025-2026 academic year, Morawski said.

The district received approval to spend $233,000 on storage devices through the state’s pilot program, but officials are still working through plan specifics, including what products to purchase, she said.

Because technology has become integrated into students’ daily lives, there’s much to consider in terms of implementing restrictions. Though educators want to be careful about how much time kids spend in front of a computer, learning often involves some screen time, Morawski said. But what students are being asked to do can be done on a Chromebook, which has protections phones don’t have, she said.

Cell phones can be vital for students monitoring health conditions like diabetes, so Morawski said they’re looking at devices with different locks for kids that need to access their phone regularly. Additionally, they’re working with health and special education staff to make sure they’re considering students who rely on their phones for specific needs.

“We absolutely acknowledge and understand that,” Morawski said. “We’d never want to put a student at risk.”

Phones have also become a way to communicate in active shooter situations, but Morawski said one company they’ve spoken with noted that limiting students’ ability to share misinformation can help officials track down facts about an emergency situation more quickly and safely. Limiting access to phones can also help students better focus on a teacher who’s trained to follow certain protocols during a crisis, she said.

Another possible upside to the program is the potential for a reduction in bullying.

“We do believe after talking to many other districts who have done this in other states that it lowers incidents of bullying drastically, and so we know that is something we want to work towards in all of our schools,” Morawski said. “We want students to feel safe and secure and we do think that this will be a step that will make a difference in their safety at school, but also offline hopefully or when they’re out of school.”

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