OKLAHOMA CITY — A state law keeping cell phones out of the classroom. That’s what one bill filed at the state capitol hopes to become next year.
FOX23 told you several schools in Green Country have already adopted some sort of cell phone restriction policy for the school year.
The bill wants every school district to adopt their own policies to keep phones out of class.
FOX23 spoke with the state senator behind this bill.
To be clear, this is not a bill that would mandate all phones be removed from schools for the entire day with no exceptions.
When FOX23 spoke with Senator Ally Seifried of Claremore, she said it aims to create framework for every school to have a policy that can remove the distraction during class
“I’d really like to offer the local school boards as much flexibility and autonomy as possible and still just say these are the requirements,” Seifried said. “What I have now is saying that the school boards need to have a policy that adopts bell to bell, how they implement that is up to them.”
The bell-to-bell rule would not allow cell phones during class hours. Students can only access them between classes and during lunch periods.
Seifried sits on the education committee. This bell bill is the result of an interim study from earlier this year.
“We talked with a lot of teachers across the state and asked them questions on what they were facing. Sadly a lot of the issues were in the classroom on discipline and just burnout from trying to take the phones away and teach their lessons and manage cell phones,” Seifried said.
The bell-to-bell rule wouldn’t come without exceptions. Seifried told FOX23 they’ve written in exceptions for students such as medical needs.
To what extent its enforced, would be up to the districts. The bill also has the possibility for grant funds to be used for schools to create these policies.
In the study, Seifried cited schools that had already put in place such rules where discipline issues like bullying went down and test scores went up.
“When that went away, the bullying did too. We just want kids to be able to focus on what they’re there to do which is learn and I want teachers to be able to have that opportunity as well,” Seifried said.
With Oklahoma being ranked 49th in education, Seifried is hoping bills like this one can help better equip students for success.
“I ultimately want it to be successful. I don’t want to come in and be heavy handed and say ye shall do this. I don’t know the dynamics of every school, of every district, but I want to help lead the way. Oklahoma has the opportunity to lead the way, no other state has released a bell-to-bell requirement yet,” Seifried said.
The bill from Seifried’s office is still being written and it has until next Friday to be finalized.
When it does, FOX23 will make sure its available so you can read the bill for yourself, but it could face several changes next legislative session starting in February.
Both Tulsa Public Schools and Broken Arrow Public Schools are some of the larger school districts that have similar cell phone policies already in place.
