When Gov. Josh Stein signed a bipartisan bill limiting how students could use their cellphones in schools last year, the North Carolina Parent Teacher Association celebrated. “Public schools in North Carolina are now cellphone-free zones,” the organization said in a Facebook post last July.
But a closer look at the state’s 115 public school districts shows a patchwork of local policies that largely leave the door open for students to use their phones during the school day.
And early research suggests that the laptops and tablets schools issue to their students might be even bigger distractions.
What does the cellphone law say?
State law does not ban cellphones from schools. Instead, it prohibits students from using them during “instructional time” and requires each school district to create its own policy. At a minimum, the policy must “prohibit students from using, displaying, or having a wireless communication device turned on during instructional time.”
The law does not define “instructional time,” but most school districts have interpreted that to mean class time.
There are exceptions for emergencies, students who need a phone because of a disability or medical condition, and teacher-approved educational purposes.
The law also directs each district to come up with consequences for students who violate cellphone policies, which could include confiscating phones or disciplinary measures like in-school suspension.
What do school districts’ policies say?
NC Local analyzed “use of wireless communication devices” policies for all 115 school districts in North Carolina.
The majority of public school districts have adopted the law’s minimum requirements, allowing many students to use their phones at lunch, between classes or during afterschool activities.
School districts largely followed a template from the North Carolina School Boards Association that helps districts comply with the state’s minimum standards. Most made minor changes but did not add any significant restrictions beyond prohibiting cellphone use during instructional time.
Only 13 districts have policies that amount to a “bell-to-bell” ban, meaning cellphones are supposed to be put away from the first bell of the school day to the last for students at every grade level. Columbus County goes as far as requiring elementary and middle school students to store phones in their bookbags, while high schoolers must leave them in Yondr pouches, storage devices that can only be unlocked by a magnetic strip at the end of the day. Some districts allow principals to make exceptions for their own schools.
Twenty-nine other districts have stricter rules for elementary and middle school students than for high schoolers, including the Wake County Public School System, the largest district in North Carolina. Most of these districts have policies that amount to a bell-to-bell ban for K-8 students.
In 48 districts, the policy leaves open the potential for all students to use phones outside of instructional time unless a principal imposes stricter rules at their own school.
The remaining 25 districts — including Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and Guilford County Schools, respectively the state’s second- and third-largest districts — fall into a gray area. They either leave rules on non-instructional time entirely up to principals or have ambiguous policies that do not clearly define when students are allowed to use their phones outside of class.
What do teachers and students think about the policies?
A cellphone ban helps students focus, according to Corie Hlavaty, a math and science teacher at Lakewood Montessori Middle School in Durham. Hlavaty said that in the nine years she has taught at Lakewood, the school has had a strict policy requiring students to put their cellphones in their lockers for the entire day.
“We’re teaching kids a very valuable lesson of being present with people around them and with their instructors,” Hlavaty told NC Local. “I honestly don’t know if I would still be teaching if cellphones were in the classroom.”
Hlavaty said a statewide standard also makes it easier for her to enforce her school’s ban, empowering teachers to confiscate phones without having to defend that choice if parents push back.
Meanwhile, students like Lilly Jones, a recently graduated senior from Durham Academy, say their schools’ policies have encouraged them to interact more with teachers and classmates.
“If a student is given the option to either be on their phone — and be on social media — or go see a teacher for help, they’re probably going to choose the phone,” Jones said.
Durham Academy is an independent, private school but has a policy similar to that of many public school districts. It allows ninth- through twelfth-graders to have their cellphones, but they must put them away during class time. Pre-K through eighth-grade students must put their phones away all day.
How do schools use devices like Chromebooks?
North Carolina relies heavily on school-issued devices both in and out of school, according to a report from the state Department of Public Instruction. All traditional public school districts now have a 1-to-1 digital-device-to-student ratio.
But students are increasingly finding ways to work around their schools’ technology policies while using these devices.
Kaitlyn Burnell, a research assistant professor at the Winston Center on Technology and Brain Development at UNC Chapel Hill, told lawmakers this spring that “a notable minority” of students are bypassing firewalls on their devices to access gaming or social media websites. Burnell said students are also using approved applications like Google Docs to communicate with each other during class.
A Winston Center report issued earlier this year called misuse of school-issued devices “an important behavior that needs greater attention.”
How do districts enforce their policies?
The consequences of violating wireless device policies vary more widely than do the policies themselves. Some call for giving students a warning on their first offense. Others go straight to confiscation. And many add escalating consequences for repeat offenses.
In Ashe County Schools, for example, a first offense requires a parent to pick up the device. Davidson County has one of the more detailed discipline ladders, with separate consequences for elementary and middle school students, including multiday holds on devices and in-school suspension for multiple offenses.
Most districts also build in more severe penalties for how a phone is used, not just when. Policies often single out cheating, bullying, harassment and illicit photos or videos as reasons for harsher punishment, which could involve law enforcement.
How do lawmakers want to change the cellphone policy?
At a spring meeting of the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee, Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Macon), the committee’s vice-chair, said he generally believes school boards should set their own cellphone policies. However, he noted that district leaders in his region want a stricter statewide rule.
“I think what they would like is if we considered doing an actual bell-to-bell legislation,” Corbin told the committee. He said local policies were still allowing students to use phones in homeroom and at lunch, making the rules harder to enforce consistently.
Research appears to back Corbin’s claim. The Winston Center report found about 37% of surveyed students said their schools enforce their cellphone policies only “sometimes” or “never.” Meanwhile, about half of surveyed teachers agreed that their students were still distracted, either by their own device or another student’s device.
Corbin suggested a state mandate would close some of the exceptions schools now allow for wireless devices. But he acknowledged that the legislature may not have the “temperature” to pass a stricter statewide policy.
Neither the state House nor Senate considered any new cell phone restrictions before adjourning for their summer break earlier this month.
Share your thoughts
Do you have a child in NC schools? How does their school cell phone policy work?
Or are you a teacher? How does the policy work in your classroom? What would make it easier or better?
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