‘I’m 100% in favor of kids not having access to cell phones’: VDOE releases new guidelines on cell phone-free education

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Leaders with the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) have released new guidelines on how schools may move forward with a “cell phone-free” education. The new draft guidelines were released on Thursday, Aug. 14, just a few days before several districts across the state start back up for their first day of classes.

“When you’re in school, you need to be focused on learning and listening to the teacher. That’s the number one thing that parents need to understand that they need to convey to their kids,” said Nicole Rodgers.

Rodgers is an elementary school teacher in Fairfax. She started teaching in 1999 and says what she’s seen over the past few years when it comes to cell phones in schools worries her, and she hopes that these newly proposed guidelines will help turn things around.

“When you go to the mall and you see a baby with a cell phone in front of their face, they’re not developing these connections that they need to be able to go to school to sit, to focus, to have conversations,” Rodgers said. “We’re robbing them of that. And I see it in school. So, I’m 100% in favor of not having kids have access to cell phones.”

Officials with the VDOE, after speaking with countless parents and teachers in public meetings over the last several weeks, say they believe something called a “bell-to-bell” policy would work best for students. Rodgers who is also a parent and says these new draft guidelines are definitely moving things in the right direction.

“I see so many behavioral issues as a result of too much unsupervised time on social media, I am completely in favor of not having cell phones in the classroom,” she said.

“As a teacher, what we see are the effects of kid’s exposure to too much screen time, and it’s been an issue for a number of years, but it’s getting more and more of a serious issue that we’re seeing. I see it even in elementary level,” Rodgers added.

According to the details in the release, “bell to bell” policy means that students’ cell phones should be turned off and put away before the first bell rings kicking off the school day and remain away until the dismissal bell rings. That policy will remain in place during lunchtime and time spent between periods. Elementary school students will have to keep their cell phones off and away while on school grounds.

“Some parents are really upset about that because they want to be able to contact their kids or get in touch with them, but they can still send an email to their child if they’re because the kids are going to have computers in class,” Rodgers said.

The draft guidance comes after Governor Glenn Youngkin issued Executive Order 33 in July to bring cell phone-free education to Virginia schools and give the VDOE the power to determine how that will be done.

“I would see kids a couple times a week with behavioral issues that were they couldn’t focus, couldn’t stay seated, couldn’t sit still, that kind of thing. I now see three or four kids per class back-to-back to back-to-back. And I only attribute it to too much screen time,” Rodgers said.

She goes on to add that even with those proposed guidelines, it still boils down to the parents and what they do to we boundaries and monitor their child’s online activities.

“I can only do so much as a teacher if kids are unsupervised, you know, as soon as they get out of school until bedtime is with as much phone time as they want,” Rodgers said.

The VDOE is still receiving public feedback on this draft guidance on its website and the department will issue its final guidance on the cellphone-free education guidance on Sept. 16.

School districts afterwards will have to adopt their own policies that line up with the state guidelines by Jan. 1, 2025, to be enforced by the beginning of that school year.

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