City Schools: Debate on school cell phone ban heats up
Questions remain about the state-mandated policy, which could be made permanent in July.
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A draft policy to ban cell phones in the Saratoga Springs City School District asks that elementary school children not bring the cell phone to school at all and that middle and high school students be required to store the cell phones in their lockers for the day. The draft is a “first read” and was not discussed at length during the SSCSD Board of Education meeting on Thursday June 27. The issue will be taken up at the next full board meeting.
Although called the “cell phone ban,” the state law and draft policy bans all devices that access the internet, including smart watches, tablets, fitness trackers, wireless headphones, laptops and more. Carve-outs are made in the policy for devices required to aid a student’s physical disability, for students with special needs and/or a personalized education plan, and for language translators for students who speak a language other than English.
The initial discussion at the board meeting wondered mostly about enforcement and workload.
“What we want to try to avoid is escalating hugely the work required by employees,” said Board Vice President Tony Krackeler, taking note of the fact that under the policy, staff and administrators would see and confiscate phones, bring them to the appropriate location for storage during the day, and then return them to students at the end of the day.
If cell phones are allowed in lockers, lockers will become the most popular places in the school, one board member quipped.
A first offense by a student would have the school take the phone for the day and return it to the student at day’s end; subsequent offenses would require the parent or guardian to pick the phone up for the student.
Board Vice President Tony Krackeler drew attention to vague language in the policy that says the school can hold a phone “daily for longer periods of time.” He wondered just what that meant. Can a student just bring the phone everyday and turn it into administrators? Just how long can the school hold the phone; is that overnight or days on end?
“No, no, we don’t have any intent of storing cell phones,” the superintendent said, adding later, “We can clarify it.”
The board will begin discussion and revision of this policy in July, with an aim to codifying it during the next full board meeting scheduled for July 24. The board also holds a special business meeting July 8, 8 a.m. to install the newly-elected members and begin the new school year.
The school system must implement the ban, officially the Students and Personal Electronic Devices policy, under a bill signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul in January. Under the law the schools are given leeway in how to implement the ban. The board will hear how well the ban is working later in the school year, Superintendent Michael Patton explained, as the state requires reporting on the progress.