The Missoula County Public Schools board this week advanced a new policy regulating student use of cell phones and other personal electronic devices at school.
The policy was informed by a survey of staff, students and parents conducted in October and largely bans smartphone use in the classroom, with some exceptions, the Montana Free Press reports.
The proposal is more strict than the district’s current policy, which states that schools may regulate the use of devices while on school property and that use in the classroom is at the teacher’s discretion.
In November, the board discussed the survey and questioned middle and high school principals about the enforcement of the current policy.
Following that meeting, each middle school and high school hosted an evening event to gather additional feedback, said Amy Shattuck, the district’s assistant superintendent, during the board meeting on Monday.
“There were a few parents who responded they were in favor of a complete ban, but the majority wanted a happy medium where there’s a consistent district policy where students do not use their phones in the classroom to distract their learning,” Shattuck said.
The proposed policy states that the district supports the use of electronics and the internet to facilitate learning, that schools may regulate their use and recommends that students not bring cell phones or other devices to school.
A building administrator can revoke a student’s cell phone privileges and require the device to be surrendered upon arrival at the school and returned at dismissal.
For elementary and middle schools, the policy prohibits the use of phones and other devices, like smartwatches or earbuds, throughout the instructional day.
Devices must be turned off and out of sight except for students with medical reasons and prior approval. Parents can call the school office and messages will be relayed to students.
Those breaking the rules will have their phones confiscated and returned at the end of the day. Repeat offenders may be required to have a parent meeting or parent pick up the device.
Superintendent Micah Hill said the district does not want to take away and not give back phones or other devices parents use to track or communicate with their children.
“We’re not trying to create a hardship, but we are trying to draw a hard line in the sand and say, ‘We’re not allowing these devices, they need to remain off or don’t bring them at all,’ through our elementary grades,” Hill said during the meeting.
For high schools, staff presented two options for trustees to choose from.
The first was similar to the current rule giving teachers discretion to allow cell phone use in the classroom.
The second option, which has building administrator support, would prohibit device use during instructional time, Hill said.
Students could use phones before or after school, during lunch and during passing periods.
During instructional time, devices must be off and out of sight except for approved medical reasons. Students can request administrative approval to use devices for other “compelling reasons.” Staff may request approval to use devices as an instructional tool during class.
“The idea is that when you’re in my classroom from 8 to 8:50, your device has to be put away,” Hill said. “There’s no exception for me to just allow you to have your phone or whatever it is. It either goes put away where we don’t see it or it has to be put into a caddy. A lot of teachers are using phone caddies for attendance-related strategies.”
Trustee Jenny Walsh said creating a district-wide policy provides cover to teachers to enforce it. Walsh said her middle schooler told her a lot of phone use happens when classes have a substitute teacher and suggested the policy be part of onboarding.
Trustees Meg Whicher and Lisa Davey raised some concerns about telling teachers what to do in their classrooms.
Hill said while the district tries to make policy black and white, it often has to “work the gray,” as exceptions are hard to parse out in concrete language. The policy will be a substantial change, and it will take time to get students, teachers and administrators on board, he said.
Parent Porter Hammitt said he supported option two for high school students and hoped the district would eventually ban phones from campus.
Erika Peterman, one of the parents who first spurred the effort to update the policy, said many teachers told her they prefer the second option.
Peterman said the regulation of phones is inconsistent across classrooms in part because it’s put on the teachers to figure out.
Scott Chook, the new president of the Missoula Education Association, said addressing phone use in schools is important as the “distraction factor” is over the top.
But there are often good reasons teachers have students use phones, such as for a yearbook class, said Chook, a middle school teacher.
He requested the language allowing teachers to use phones for instruction with permission be added to the elementary/middle school section of the policy.
Trustee Whicher said kindergarten through eighth grade should be totally phone-free during school hours.
For things like the yearbook, students should be able to use their Chromebooks or other provided technology rather than personal phones that not all students have, she said.
Hill said while he sees her point, it’s beneficial to have some flexibility.
“I understand this is looking at limiting and prohibiting the use of, but also at some point, we’re going to turn these kids loose in the real world,” he said. “And where is the opportunity, starting at maybe sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, to introduce them to responsible technology use from trusted adults, from someone who isn’t necessarily the parent, in the educational setting.”
The board approved moving forward with option two for high schools.
Trustees also approved several changes to the proposal, including allowing middle school teachers to use devices for instruction with approval, adding language that removes privileges if phones are used for bullying, and removing language that could require parents to pick up a confiscated device.
The public can submit comments on the amended policy, which the board will consider before voting on it again in March.
