Cellphones will be banned in Oklahoma schools for 2025-26 school year: What to know
Oklahoma students won't have access to their cellphones while at school and will have fewer virtual school days under bills signed into law by Gov. Kevin Stitt.
Sen. Ally Seifried, R-Claremore, and Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, worked for two years toward the passage of Senate Bill 139. The new law will require public school districts to limit student cellphone use during the school day ― from 'bell to bell' — for the entire 2025-26 school year. After that, district officials will have the flexibility to adjust their cellphone policies as they see fit.
Seifried said the law is aimed at creating distraction-free learning environments for students.
'This will allow teachers to focus entirely on educating our kids while students can concentrate on learning as much as possible," she said. "After two years of hard work on this issue, I'm thrilled to see this legislation become law, and I'm confident students, parents and teachers will see immediate benefits once the new school year begins."
Under the new law, district cellphone policies must make exceptions for students who need their phones to manage a medical condition and allow phone use in emergencies. Additionally, districts must clearly outline disciplinary actions for students who violate a school's phone-free policy.
Virtual-days bill signed over objections of some rural schools
Sen. Kristen Thompson, R-Edmond, and Rep. Anthony Moore, R-Clinton, authored Senate Bill 758, which will restrict Oklahoma school districts to only two virtual days per school year that can count toward the 180-day or 1,080-hour school year instructional requirement.
The new law will require each district school board to approve a local virtual instruction plan that addresses special education services, nutrition for students who receive free or reduced lunches, transportation access to career tech programs and an assessment of students' internet accessibility.
Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, said the measure was important to him and thanked Thompson for making the bill a priority.
A bill limiting virtual days in Oklahoma schools, authored by Sen. Kristen Thompson, of Edmond, has been signed into law.
'I truly believe the best place for our kids to learn is in the classroom," Paxton said. "Once this becomes law, it will help with learning, social skills and working parents who have to schedule their lives around arbitrary virtual learning days.'
Thompson spent two legislative sessions shepherding the bill, but she has received considerable pushback from leaders of small, rural school districts, some of which offer four-day school weeks — with either a virtual day or an off day on the fifth day ― as incentives to attract teachers to work in their districts.
Erika Buzzard Wright, the founder of the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition, called Stitt's decision to sign the bill 'a significant setback' for rural school districts. She said voices from rural schools were "completely ignored throughout the legislative process' and said the new law 'effectively strips local districts of the ability to make decisions that best serve their students.'
'This is a slap in the face to local control — especially for rural districts that have worked tirelessly to attract and retain qualified educators,' Wright said. 'Our schools are already competing with neighboring states that not only offer better pay, but also embrace flexible, innovative school calendars.'
She predicted schools located near Oklahoma's borders with other states will have teachers poached as a result.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: When will Oklahoma's cellphone ban in schools begin? What to know
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Republicans focus on trans athletes in their early attacks against Jon Ossoff in Georgia
In the early stages of the campaign, Republicans seeking to unseat Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff in one of the key races of the 2026 midterm elections are leaning heavily into attacks over transgender athletes in women's sports. Two GOP-aligned groups launched ads on the issue in recent weeks. And GOP Rep. Buddy Carter hit the airwaves with an ad prodding Ossoff on the issue soon after launching his campaign. Republican candidates and campaigns have frequently leaned on culture war issues in recent years as a way to excite the base and frame Democrats as out of touch, particularly in red-leaning states. And they're even more emboldened after President Donald Trump bombarded then-Vice President Kamala Harris with an onslaught of ads that attacked her support for transgender people during the 2024 election. But while Democrats are gearing up for a difficult re-election fight for Ossoff in a state Trump won narrowly in 2024, they think the issue will be drowned out by voters' concerns about the economy, particularly Trump's handling of it. Even so, it's an issue for which Democrats lack a consensus about how to respond to GOP broadsides, as prominent members of the party grapple with whether to embrace protecting the transgender community as part of their values, deflect the question, or come out against including transgender athletes in women's sports. Ossoff is the only Democratic incumbent defending a seat in a state Trump won last year, making him far-and-away the top target for Senate Republicans. Still, some Republicans admit that Ossoff will be difficult to beat, particularly now that Gov. Brian Kemp decided not to seek the seat. The early Republican criticism of Ossoff points to the Democratic senator's vote on legislation in February that would make it a Title IX violation (jeopardizing federal education funding) for states to allow transgender women and girls to participate in female sports. The bill failed to get the 60 votes it needed to advance in the Senate. One Nation, the nonprofit aligned with Senate Republicans' main super PAC, has spent at least $400,000 airing an ad reminiscent of a key tagline from one of Trump's anti-Harris ads from last year: 'Man-to-man defense isn't woke enough for Ossoff, he's playing for they/them.' Carter's opening salvo of ads included a spot touting the congressman's MAGA credentials while a person purporting to be a transgender woman holds sports trophies and stands in front of a transgender pride flag talking about how Ossoff has been an ally to the community. Asked about the GOP criticism of that vote, Ossoff campaign communications director Ellie Dougherty told NBC News in a statement that 'American parents don't need federal bureaucrats confirming our children's genitalia,' a reference to how a state might enforce the mandate in the Republican bill. Scott Paradise, who managed Republican Herschel Walker's losing Senate campaign in 2022, told NBC News that Ossoff's first Senate run in 2020 provided a 'perfect storm' that allowed Ossoff to position himself as a 'centrist' by narrowing his focus to 'bread-and-butter issues.' 'If he's talking about the economy or he's talking about moments where he has stood with the right — whether it's Middle East, to the extent he has on immigration — it's easier for him to muddy the waters. But this is such a black-and-white issue in a center-right state' that allows Republicans to try to frame him as out of step, Paradise said. Polling broadly shows the American public doesn't support transgender women playing in female sports. Last month's NBC News Stay Tuned Poll, powered by SurveyMonkey found that 75% opposed it and 25% supported it. Other national polling has found similar trends. That's one reason why Trump's campaign focused heavily on the issue in ads, arguing that Harris was outside the mainstream and pointing to her past support for gender-affirming treatments for prison inmates. After the election, Democrats have disagreed over whether the party's position on transgender rights, particularly in women's sports, cost them electorally. Asked about the attacks last month during an interview on "Political Breakfast," a podcast hosted by Georgia's public radio affiliate, Ossoff said the big early spending is a signal to him that "demonstrates the national GOP understands the strength that I'll be bringing to this re-election campaign." The Democrat called Republicans, particularly GOP political consultants, "obsessed and preoccupied with this issue." Thinking ahead about "top of mind" issues for voters in 2026, Ossoff added, will it be "whether or not federal bureaucrats are investigating the sexual biology of adolescent athletes? I don't think so," he added. Amy Morton, a Democratic strategist in Georgia, elaborated that she believes the midterms will instead be a "referendum on the economy" and Trump's handling of it, emphasizing the Democratic attacks on the GOP's broad policy bill that's working its way through Congress. "They're going to continue to lean into that issue because they don't want to talk about the issues that are really impacting Georgians," she said, adding, "They made a strategic decision to wrap their arms around Donald Trump so there won't be a degree of separation between his failure as an executive and their failure." A Democratic strategist who worked on Sen. Raphael Warnock's successful re-election in Georgia in 2022 added that, like their former boss, Ossoff's high-profile elections have helped to define him in the state, making them skeptical that a GOP attempt to brand him as extreme will stick. They added that while Warnock's 2022 Republican opponent, Herschel Walker, leaned heavily on social issues during his unsuccessful bid, Kemp won comfortably with a very different message on the same ballot, showing how a campaign can focus on the issues it wants and leave others to the side. "You saw Brian Kemp run an extremely disciplined race on the economy. You were hard-pressed to get Kemp on the record about abortion in 2022 — the man was laser-focused on small businesses, jobs and the economy. That was the consistent message you heard out of Brian Kemp. You compare that to Herschel Walker and, you can do the math: 300,000 votes," the Democrat said. But the economy was also a top issue in the 2024 election, and Trump and the Republican Party still managed to turn their attacks on trans issues into a memorable tagline that stuck with some voters. That's why one national Republican strategist told NBC News that the attack isn't a "replacement" for a cogent economic argument, but "part of the equation." 'It's an issue that obviously had a massive impact in 2024. The Trump campaign's 'Harris is for they/them' ad is one of the greatest ads of our generation in that it's so simple and was so effective,' the strategist said. Ads about transgender participants in women's sports can run "on top of: Oh, he also voted to help ensure that illegal immigrants get government-paid health care and he voted against the Laken Riley amendment in 2024 before it was convenient," the strategist added. While the transgender sports attacks are drawing headlines, both sides have been running ads focused on spending in Washington, too. Democrats have attacked the GOP's policy bill working its way through Washington, and Republicans hit Ossoff for backing former President Joe Biden's signature spending bill in 2022. Tharon Johnson, a Georgia Democratic strategist who worked for Biden's 2020 campaign in the state, agreed that Republicans are "going to be hard-pressed to make Jon Ossoff into this radical," in part because of his work both in office and on the campaign trail. And while he believes the situation Harris found herself in last year isn't the same one Ossoff finds himself in now, he said Democrats can still draw a lesson from it: "Respond sooner, and more effectively." So far, Ossoff's response has been to stay focused on the economy and try to frame the debate as about local control. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Push to raise Block Island ferry landing fees moves forward at R.I. State House
Both New Shoreham and Narragansett are asking for a 50-cent increase to passenger landing fees to absorb the costs associated with providing municipal services, including public safety, for tourists, like those seen arriving here at the Port of Galilee in Narragansett. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current) Sailing away on the Block Island Ferry may soon cost more, pending the passage of state legislation that would increase traveler landing fees to and from the island for the first time in nearly 35 years. Two companion proposals in the Rhode Island General Assembly — each with a Senate and House version, for a total of four separate bills — would authorize a 50-cent increase in the landing fees charged to passengers ages 12 and up arriving at both Narragansett's Port of Galilee and Block Island's Old Harbor. That would mean a total increase of $1 per passenger for a round-trip to and from the island. 'For every person that steps off the ferry, there is assessed a landing fee to help the municipalities cover expenses that they are responsible for on both sides of that journey, from police details to garbage pickup to area maintenance and things like that,' Sen. Alana DiMario, a Narragansett Democrat and sponsor of the two Senate bills, said at a May 27 committee hearing. On Tuesday, the House and Senate floors will vote on their respective versions of the bill to up the fee on Block Island's side, and the House Committee on Municipal Government and Housing will hear the bill to raise the fee at Narragansett's port. The Senate passed its version of the Narragansett bill on June 3. The price range of a round trip for riders aged 12 and up is between $16.60 and $20.60 for the traditional speed ferry, which takes about an hour from Galilee. The high-speed ferry takes about half an hour and costs $57 with the landing fee. The traditional ferry runs year round, while the high-speed service runs on a more limited timetable in the off-season. At both ports, those prices add on a 50-cent surcharge for each passenger arriving by boat, which is collected from both private vessels and ferry operators, with the latter redirecting this surcharge into ticket prices. While Narragansett raised its landing fees from 35 cents to 50 cents in 2022, New Shoreham's fee has not budged since 1991. But the town services supported by the fees certainly have, according to Amy Land, New Shoreham's interim town manager, the only municipality on Block Island. 'This includes funding for seasonal police staff, support for the Block Island Medical Center, for fire, for rescue services, recreation, maintenance of public restrooms, improvements to beaches and public access,' Land told the House Committee on Municipal Government and Housing at a May 1 hearing on the New Shoreham bill. 'So all those expenses that are derived from our tourist economy, and clearly the volume and costs of providing those services have increased and escalated in the 35 years since the landing fee was first introduced,' she added. A hot summer's day on Block Island can draw 20,000 to 30,000 tourists on average, Land said. In recent years, the town has typically grossed about $180,000 to $190,000 in landing fees annually. Land said the majority of landing fee revenue — about $135,000 — comes from Interstate Navigation's ferry from Galilee. An additional $35,000 is collected from ferries out of New London, Connecticut, and Orient, New York. Smaller amounts flow from the Montauk ferry, plus passengers on ships that use the town's moorings, anchorages, and dockage. Land said the town is also collaborating with private marinas to have them collect and remit landing fees on the town's behalf. 'That seems like your collection is low, comparatively, because the only way to get there is by boat,' said Charlestown Democratic Rep. Tina Spears, who sponsored the bill on the House side. 'Not necessarily,' Land replied. 'We are confident that our primary channel, Interstate, is remitting fairly and appropriately. You may have people who come and stay for an extended period. You have others that come and go. So the timing of visitors is something we've always been challenged to document.' For every person that steps off the ferry, there is assessed a landing fee to help the municipalities cover expenses that they are responsible for on both sides of that journey, from police details to garbage pickup to area maintenance and things like that. – Sen. Alana DiMario, a Narragansett Democrat Rep. Lauren Carson, a Newport Democrat, suggested New Shoreham should raise landing fees more, then nodded to her own successful legislation last year that saw Newport raise its fees for docked cruise ships from $6 to $20 per passenger. 'We are hoping to come back more frequently over time,' Land said. In the Senate Committee on Housing and Municipal Government, Chair Jake Bissaillon, a Providence Democrat, had only one question for lobbyist Rick McAuliffeof The Mayforth Group, which represents New Shoreham: Why wasn't the bill introduced alongside the previous Narragansett legislation in 2022? 'To be honest with you, we weren't prepared,' McAulliffe said. 'We wanted to make sure that we had a number that would justify the public safety and things that we have.' McAuliffe said there are two State Police troopers who come to the island during the summer, plus additional police detail to handle the summer months' massive crowds. The medical center is 'very full' on a hot summer's day, he added. 'Certainly, tourism dollars are important to the island, but there's a cost to host so many residents, so many tourists,' McAulliffe said. 'I can't say we won't come back in another 35 years.' In March, the New Shoreham Town Council originally considered asking the General Assembly for permission to raise the landing fee from the current 50 cents to $1.75 — a $1.25 increase. Councilors voted on March 27 to seek approval from the General Assembly for the $1.25 landing fee increase. But at the April 2 council meeting, Interstate lawyer Michael McElroy said that such a drastic increase would trigger Narragansett to do the same and ultimately push round-trip landing costs to increase by $3.25 per passenger, according to the Block Island Times. '$1.75 is a big deal and Narragansett will want to match it,' McElroy was quoted in the Times. The New Shoreham Town Council revised its plan on April 9 to reduce the proposed increase to 50 cents, for a $1 landing fee on the island. DiMario's first bill submitted on April 16 had sought the $1.25 increase. A week later, councilors met with DiMario and Spears virtually to align their proposals on Smith Hill with the requested 50-cent increase. McElroy's hunch about Narragansett was confirmed on May 19. On that night, the Narragansett Town Council approved a resolution for a 50-cent increase to match New Shoreham. Interstate Navigation did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this story. Each of the four bills must pass both the House and Senate before the legislation can arrive on the governor's desk. The bills would take effect upon passage. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
GOP House Homeland chairman Green to retire from Congress early
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The House Homeland Security Committee's chairman, Republican Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, announced Monday that he will retire from Congress once the House votes again on the sprawling tax and budget policy bill backed by President Donald Trump. In a statement, Green said he was offered a private sector opportunity that was 'that was too exciting to pass up' so he informed House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday of his retirement plans. The move comes more than a year after Green announced he wouldn't run again in 2024, but changed his mind when fellow Republicans implored him to stick around. Green's next election would have been in 2026. Green voted for Trump's sweeping legislation when it passed the House last month. The bill is now in the Senate's hands, and would need to return to the House for agreement on any changes. Trump wants the bill on his desk for his signature by July 4. Green's delayed departure could help with the GOP's narrow margins in the House. Republican leaders need every vote they can get on their big tax bill, which they managed to pass last month by a single vote and will have to pass again once changes are made in the Senate. They now have a 220-212 majority. 'It was the honor of a lifetime to represent the people of Tennessee in Congress," Green said. "They asked me to deliver on the conservative values and principles we all hold dear, and I did my level best to do so.' Ahead of his 2024 reelection, Green had announced that February 2024 he would not run again. The decision was revealed a day after the impeachment of then-President Joe Biden's Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. But many fellow Republicans had called on him to reconsider, and he jumped back into the running just two weeks later. He was unopposed in the Republican primary and then defeated Democrat Megan Barry — the former Nashville mayor who resigned in 2018 in scandal — by more than 21 percentage points in November 2024. Green, 60, has served since 2019 in the 7th Congressional District, which was redrawn in 2022 to include a significant portion of Nashville. The city was carved up three ways in the 2022 redistricting so Republicans could flip a Democratic district in Congress that had covered Music City, which they successfully did. Green previously served as an Army surgeon and in the state Senate and is from Montgomery County. Green flirted running for governor in 2017, but suspended his campaign after he was nominated by former President Donald Trump to become the Army secretary. He later withdrew his nomination due to criticism over his remarks about Muslims and LGBTQ+ Americans.
