The Wake school board's new draft policy wouldn't make drastic changes to what schools are already doing, though survey results show concerns about cellphone use, and board members on Tuesday raised several questions about how schools are already handling cellphone restrictions.
The school board plans to have a districtwide cellphone policy -- rather than leaving policies entirely to school principals -- in place by July 1. As drafted, it would require cellphones to be turned off, silenced or in airplane mode from the morning bell to the afternoon, with a few exceptions for student special education and health plans, emergencies and some instruction for high schoolers.
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But while nearly all schools require cellphones to be put away during instructional time, district survey results show more than 80% of educators and family members surveyed still believe cellphones are a distraction in school, leading to students missing learning opportunities.
Yet the Wake school board's draft cellphone policy largely mirrors what schools are already doing, and board members want more information from the school district about how those policies are working in practice as they refine the policy for implementation next year.
School board members spent an hour Tuesday afternoon discussing the proposed policy -- drafted by district officials -- and raised questions about how students were being disciplined for violating cellphone policies, whether headphones should also be restricted and how rules could be different for field trips.
When the school system surveyed teachers, they found that teachers don't consistently choose to confiscate phones.
"Some do, some don't, some want to be able to, some don't want to have to," said Julie Crain, district senior director of policy and strategic initiatives. Devices aren't cheap and teachers don't want to be responsible for devices that cost hundreds of dollars or even more than $1,000, she said.
Students, families and educators all said in the survey that enforcement needed to be more consistent.
Policy Committee Chairwoman Lynn Edmonds said the district was having an issue with procedures being between schools.
"We're trying to make things more uniform across 200 schools," she said.
The proposed policy stops short of prescribing specific enforcement of the policy, instead leaving it up to schools -- the way it is now. It says only that teachers could confiscate and phone and that they wouldn't be liable for damages to it.
When asked how the new policy could still fix the concerns about a lack of enforcement, Edmonds said she hoped the district office would provide clear guidance.
"Cellphones are so pervasive," Edmonds said. "We all have them, we all use them, including our students. So it's going to be a big challenge.
However, I'm confident that the superintendent will be very clear in how this needs to be executed, and very give very clear directions to principals and teachers to try to help improve some of the frustrations that parents and teachers are having right now."
Crain said district leaders believed school principals should be able to determine the best enforcement method for their school, and several board members agreed.
Still, they asked the district for data on how schools' cellphone restrictions are being enforced.
"We also want to make sure one kid isn't being punished so severely at one school and at another, another kid is getting nothing," Board Member Sam Hershey said. "We need data on that."
On Tuesday, some parents told WRAL News they wanted the district to ensure children were separated from their phones.
"[Cellphones] are probably going to be right in the backpack, next to the kids," said Mel Acharya, a district parent. "You've got to have more distance than that."
Parent Adam Berenson is concerned about how schools will better enforce cellphone restrictions.
"When I was a young kid, we always found a way around the rules," he said.
Two bills in the General Assembly are looking to require school boards to do this, and they have a lot of bipartisan support. One passed through the House of Representatives on Tuesday,
Wake's draft policy appears to implement the requirements of the more specific of the two bills. Senate Bill 55 requires school boards to adopt districtwide restrictions on cellphone use with similar exceptions.
The district will propose revisions to the cellphone policy based on any additional requirements of those laws.
District officials also plan to incorporate rules for field trips into the current draft, which doesn't address field trips.