It might be too late for parents to dream about a screen-free summer for their kids, but the Massachusetts Senate is moving closer to banning them in classrooms statewide.
Senate lawmakers on the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Education voted 6-0 to advance legislation tackling what backers described as “one of the most distracting devices ever created.”
The bill now goes to the Senate’s Ways and Means Committee, typically the last stop before a floor vote in the majority-Democrat chamber.
“Overwhelming evidence shows us that cell phones are major barriers to student growth and achievement in the classroom, and they make it harder for our talented educators to teach‚” Senate President Karen E. Spilka, D-Middlesex/Norfolk, and Sen. Jason Lewis, D-5th Middlesex, who chairs the Senate’s side of the Education Committee, said in a statement.
As it’s currently written, the bill would require school districts statewide to come up with policies banning access to personal electronic devices, including cellphones, during the entirety of the school day.
The bill would allow a broad array of exceptions, ranging from access for multilingual learners and students who live with disabilities to time spent off campus, according to a summary of the legislation.
Districts also would be required to provide “one or more methods for parents and guardians of students to readily contact students during the school day, including policies for emergency situations when contact is urgent, or for a student to contact their parent or caregiver during the school day if needed,” according to the Senate’s summary of the legislation.
“As legislators, neighbors, and parents, it is incumbent upon us to ensure classrooms are places where young people focus, learn, and thrive. We look forward to seeing the bill’s continued progress,” Spilka and Lewis said in their joint statement.
Spilka, of Ashland, first pitched the idea for a statewide ban in a May speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
She argued there was “mounting evidence that cellphone usage among students during the school day is detrimental for a number of reasons—from simple distraction to more worrying issues such as cheating and cyberbullying.”
Spilka told business leaders in May that her son, a high school teacher, inspired her to take up the issue.
“I’m happy to say that we talk a lot, and he often tells me about the unique challenges of teaching students who sit with a cellphone at their desk,” Spilka said.
At least 18 states already have laws restricting cellphone use in schools, Spilka said at the time.
The push for cellphone bans has been driven by concerns about the impact screen time has on children’s mental health and complaints from teachers that cellphones have become a constant distraction in the classroom.
Nationally, 77% of U.S. schools say they prohibit cellphones at school for non-academic use, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
But that number is misleading. It does not mean students are following those bans or that all those schools are enforcing them.
Kim Whitman, co-founder of the Phone Free Schools Movement, said the issue is catching on because parents and teachers in both red and blue states are struggling with the consequences of kids on mobile devices.
“It doesn’t matter if you live in a big city or a rural town, urban or suburban, all children are struggling and need that seven-hour break from the pressures of phones and social media during the school day,” she said.
Associated Press and State House News Service reports are included in this story.
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