Wake schools now have a cellphone policy. What students and parents should know.
The Wake County school board unanimously gave final approval Tuesday to a new cellphone policy that says personal wireless communication devices must be silenced and put away during instructional time. The policy would allow high school students to take their phones out during breaks and if allowed in class by the teacher.
'High school students are different,' said school board member Lynn Edmonds. 'They should have a little bit more autonomy.'
Failure to follow the new policy, which goes into effect in July, could result in phones being confiscated and students being disciplined.
The policy represents Wake County's first attempt to standardize cellphone rules across all schools. Previously, individual schools set their own policies.
Wake's new phone policy comes amid growing concerns about the negative impacts the devices have on learning and students' mental health.
At least 24 states have laws or policies that ban or restrict students' use of cellphones in schools statewide or recommend local districts enact their own bans or restrictive policies, according to an Education Week analysis.
Both the state House and Senate have passed their own bills restricting cellphone use in school and included the language in their budget proposals. Wake would have to change the policy if the Senate bill becomes law because it requires phones to be turned off and not just silenced in class.
School leaders say the policy will likely need to be revised on a regular basis due to changes in technology.
The phone policy is more restrictive at elementary schools and middle school than high schools.
Under the policy, elementary and middle school students would be required to put their phones away during instructional time between morning and afternoon bells. To provide consistency, the board rejected adding wording on Tuesday that would allow schools to place additional restrictions.
The policy defines 'put away' as being out of sight and not easily accessible. This can include putting the phone in a locker, backpack or bag. Students wouldn't be allowed to leave their phones in their pocket.
Some exceptions would be allowed for students to use phones during school:
▪ Phones can be used during school hours if they're authorized or required in the individualized education program or Section 504 plan of a student with disabilities. Wording was added Tuesday to also include if phones are used by students with disabilities for translation or assistive communication.
▪ Phones can be used if they're part of a student's individualized health plan. Examples include using the phone to monitor a student's glucose levels
▪ School staff may authorize brief use of a device if there is a reasonable and legitimate need to communicate with someone outside the school during the instructional day. Students must ask for permission in advance, unless they're calling 911 in an emergency.
Two exceptions would only apply at high schools:
▪ The high school is allowing teachers to authorize use of devices during class for instructional purposes.
▪ The high school has developed a rule for allowing the devices to be used during specified non-instructional time, such as class change and lunch.
School board member Toshiba Rice said it would cause too many problems telling high school students that they can't check their phones during non-instructional times.
'You can't take away something that is part of a person's social norms in its entirety,' Rice said.
The policy allows school staff to temporarily confiscate a student's phone if they've repeatedly violated the policy or their use of the device is substantially disrupting other students.
At the urging of board member Lindsay Mahaffey, the policy was amended Tuesday to say that students will get a verbal warning first about silencing or putting away their phones before they are confiscated.
'They're children,' Mahaffey said. 'Children make mistakes.'
Phones are generally supposed to be returned at the end of the class. But they can be confiscated for the entire school day if the student's behavior is substantially disruptive or if they've regularly violated the policy.
Parents are supposed to be notified if their student's device is being repeatedly confiscated or if it's being confiscated for the entire school day.
Parents can be required to come to the school to pick up the confiscated phone if there's been a pattern of violations all school year and written warning was provided ahead of time.
The policy says the school system will not accept responsibility for the theft, loss or damage to phones.
Ahead of the vote, the district surveyed teachers about the policy with 2,617 submitting responses.
▪ 87.6% of teachers agree or strongly agree that phones should be turned off during instructional time.
▪ Teachers were split whether there are appropriate times when student device use can be encouraged with 43.5% agreeing or strongly agreeing and 42.2% of teachers disagreeing or strongly disagreeing.
▪ 58.8% of teachers agreed or strongly agreed that device confiscation should only be used as a last resort after other classroom management strategies have failed.
▪ 61.9% of teachers agree or strongly agree that they support device confiscation in classrooms.
Also on Tuesday, the school board voted to convert Lake Myra Elementary School in Wendell to a multi-track year-round calendar starting in the 2026-27 school year.
In a multi-track calendar, all the students are divided into four groups, called tracks, which have their own rotating schedules. Three tracks are in session at all times, which can increase the building's capacity by 20% or more.
The conversion will expand Lake Myra's capacity from 616 students to 814 students. Lake Myra currently uses a track 4 year-round calendar, meaning all students follow the same schedule.
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