Students becoming comfortable with Jefferson County School District’s new cell phone ban
Published 11:20 am Thursday, October 23, 2025
At the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, the Jefferson County School District enacted a cell phone ban policy in line with Governor Tina Kotek’s executive order released in July 2025. The order stated that schools needed to prohibit cell phone use during the day for students.
That executive order stated school policies had to be in place by January 2026, but Jefferson County School District decided it would be better to start the policy in the new school year, according to Jefferson County School District Director of Communications Joseph Prechtl.
The Jefferson County School District’s cell phone ban policy will extend what the local middle schools, Warm Springs K-8 Academy and Jefferson County Middle School, were already doing to also be enforced at the elementary and high schools.
“When I first heard about it, I think I heard about it through my friends,” said Madras High School senior Yuri Alferez Diaz. “And we were kind of dissing on it.”
As the district was drafting the policy, they were aware of how big of a change this may be for students.
“We knew MHS was going to be the biggest change, because students were allowed to get on their phones during passing period,” said Prechtl. “They were allowed to get on their phones during lunchtime. So we knew that was going to be the biggest change, going from that to the bell-to-bell (ban).”
According to the district’s website, the policy aims to “help improve the educational environment for all of our students in all of our schools” by reducing distractions in the classroom, which Diaz saw happen before the ban.
“I feel like students would have their headphones in while listening to music,” Diaz said. “Teachers would be kind of upset because then they would have to repeat themselves over and over to those students who were not listening at first.”
Diaz recalls that this led to teachers having to reteach lessons as questions came up for those who may not have been paying attention.
For students who can’t go off-campus for lunch, the policy also means cell phones cannot be used at all from the beginning to the end of the school day, including passing times between classes. Juniors and seniors can leave the school property for lunch, and could use their phones during that time.
In the case of an emergency, the district encourages families to contact students by calling their schools. Exemptions to the policy can be made through documented medical allowances, Independent Education Plans, and 504 Plans.
Students seem to be adjusting well to the change.
“I don’t mind it,” said Diaz. “I understand why teachers are doing it, why the school banned it. After the first day, when I put it in my backpack, I did have the habit of trying to take it out for a week. And then after that, it was kind of normal.”
The policy has a three-strike system, with differing punishments based on how many times a student has been found with a phone during the day.
“I feel like the grace is good,” Diaz said.
The first time students are caught with their phones, their device is taken away and given to the front office. Students then would have to call their families each time they are seen with their phone out, and on their first offense, they can pick up their device at the end of the school day.
If it happens a second time, the device can be picked up by a family member at the end of the day, or the student can get it from the office the following morning.
After the third strike, a family member can get it that day, or the student can get it the following morning. But for the week following that third instance, the student would have to turn in the device to the front office every morning, and they can only get it back at the end of the day to take home with them.
“What I have heard is mostly positive,” Prechtl said when considering the response to the ban. “That ‘I’m really happy the school district is doing this, happy that the cell phones are being taken away, that we’re asking students to put them away so they’re no longer a distraction.’”