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Isle of Wight County’s School Board will likely need to make changes to its cellphone use policy to comply with draft guidelines the Virginia Department of Education released Aug. 15 in response to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order calling for “cellphone-free education” in public schools.

Surry County Public Schools’ policies appear to already be closely aligned with the new guidance, which, if finalized, would prohibit students at all grade levels from keeping cellphones on their person during the school day.

Parents, students, teachers and other stakeholders can view and comment on the draft guidance through Sept. 15 by visiting https://www.doe.virginia.gov/programs-services/school-operations-support-services/cell-phone-free-education-in-virginia-k-12-public-schools. The VDOE plans to release final guidance on Sept. 16.

According to the draft guidelines, elementary, middle and high school students “shall not have a cellphone” or other electronic communication device at any time “during the bell-to-bell school day.” The guidance defines the term to mean any time between the first bell that starts instructional time to the dismissal bell, including lunch and time between class blocks.

At the high school level, cellphones “may be used on a high school campus before or after school,” but during bell-to-bell instructional time, students at elementary, middle and high school grade levels “must use school-based communication tools and platforms” to communicate non-emergency needs to parents.

The guidance stipulates educators and extra-curricular sponsors “must use non-social media-based apps to communicate activity and athletic scheduling information with students during school hours.”

School employees “should lead by example and have clear boundaries around their own use of cellphones for emergency or crisis communication purposes only,” the guidance states.

In the event of an emergency, “it is important for adults to have access to a cellphone or classroom phone to coordinate crisis notification and emergency safety plans.”

Youngkin’s July 9 order, which blames cellphones for a statewide surge in mental health crises among teenagers, requires school boards adopt new policies governing cellphone use by Jan. 1. The guidance document further states school board policies must address use of cellphones on school buses, but does not mandate that phones on buses be prohibited.

Isle of Wight County Schools’ existing cellphone policy, designated Policy IIBEA, was last revised Oct. 12. It allows cellphone use by students within color-coded zones.

Areas designated as green zones, which include cafeterias, common areas and hallways at the high school level, allow largely unrestricted use of cellphones and other electronic devices by students. Areas designated as yellow zones, which include grades 4-12 classrooms and common areas where classes are assembled, allow limited cellphone use at the discretion of a teacher. Cellphones are prohibited in red zones, which include all areas where kindergartners through third-graders are present, all common areas in fourth through eighth grades, and bathrooms and locker rooms in high schools.

According to Airon Grim, Surry’s director of assessment, career readiness and instructional technology, Surry already prohibits cellphones in its sole elementary school, Surry Elementary, and requires that middle school students turn off their cellphones and store them in their lockers upon entering Luther Porter Jackson Middle School. At Surry County High, he said, students must turn off their cellphones and store them out of sight during instructional time.

According to American Psychological Association data cited in Youngkin’s order, American teens spend 4.8 hours per day using YouTube, TikTok and other popular social media apps on cellphones, with 10% of the highest users expressing suicidal or self-harm intent over the past 12 months as of April 1 of this year.  

According to a 2020 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics System, suicides among Virginians ages 10-24 increased 58.6% from 2007 to 2018. Virginia had the 32nd highest uptick of the 50 states. Virginia Department of Health data from 2022 shows emergency department visits among Virginians ages 9-18 for suicidal thoughts, self harm or suicide attempts more than doubled from 6,520 visits in 2016 to 14,298 in 2021.