The Virginia Department of Education, in partnership with the Departments of Health and Health and Human Services, will have to come up with a definition of “cell phone-free education,” and the schools might have to provide pouches or lockers with access restricted to communicating with family on scheduling matters or in the case of emergency.
Those guidelines will have to be presented to K-12 schools by August 15, and the ban on cell phones in classrooms policy will have to be enacted this year. The Governor’s directive cites research from the American Psychological Association, which suggests that children who are on social media more than three hours a day have a 100% higher mental health risk.
Currently, the directive continues, they are using phones to access social media nearly 5 hours a day, way above the mental safety threshold. Another bonus point of restricting cell phone use in classrooms would be the increased focus, as another piece of research stipulates that students who use their phones during class are distracted, learn less and, as a result, have lower grades.
Virginia will finance the measure with $500,000, part of which will go to mental health initiatives or developing and popularizing best practices for restricting phone usage in the classroom.
Public input will be sought through listening sessions to shape age-appropriate policies and procedures, with the final guidance expected to be released by September 16, and implementation expected before January 1, 2025.
