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Isle of Wight County Schools is proposing a more restrictive cellphone policy in light of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s July executive order calling for “cellphone-free education.”

Under the new policy, students at all grade levels would be required to keep their cellphones turned off and in their backpacks or bags from the time they enter their school to the time they exit.

Smartwatches also “may not be used as personal communication devices,” the new policy states.

Prior to Youngkin’s order and final guidance the Virginia Department of Education issued Sept. 16, IWCS had allowed student cellphone use under a policy designated IIBEA within color-coded areas.

Areas designated as green zones, which include cafeterias, common areas and hallways at the high school level, had until this year allowed 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, had allowed limited cellphone use at the discretion of a teacher. Cellphones were prohibited in red zones, which included 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.

The new policy, which the School Board is scheduled to discuss at its Sept. 19 meeting, stipulates headphones and earbuds are also not to be worn at school unless permitted for a specific activity as directed by school staff.

The new policy stipulates students found to be using cellphones during the school day will receive two warnings, each of which will trigger a notice to that student’s parents, before school officials are allowed to confiscate the device and refer the student for disciplinary action. The devices will remain confiscated until retrieved by a parent, at which time both the student and parent will be required to sign a form stating future incidents will carry more significant consequences.

Parents who need to contact their children during the school day should call the main office at their child’s school, the policy states.

The final state guidelines are largely unchanged from a draft the VDOE released Aug. 15, which mandate that elementary, middle and high school students not have a cellphone or other electronic communication device on their person 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 not during the school day, the guidance states.

According to the final guidance document, a common theme among the nearly 6,000 responses received during the 30-day public comment period that ended Sept. 15 was whether there would be exceptions for students with medical needs, and specifically the use of smartphone apps for health monitoring. The document states the VDOE partnered with school nurses, pediatricians and the Virginia Department of Health to address medical exemptions for students with individualized education plans, or IEPs, an accommodations plan under Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act, or individualized health care plans. In accordance with this, Isle of Wight’s policy states students with a medical issue that requires cellphone use will need documentation.

Many students also wrote in asking to use their cellphones during lunch hours. However, the guidance asserts it is “essential that students have the opportunity to develop face-to-face conversations and develop critical in-person communication skills during unstructured school hours.”

The final guidance, available to the public at https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showdocument?id=57403&t=638621062734254296,  gives school boards until Jan. 1 to bring their local policies into compliance.

Surry County Public Schools’ existing procedures already prohibit cellphones at its sole elementary school and requires middle school students to store them in their lockers upon entering Luther Porter Jackson Middle School. At Surry County High, students are required to turn off their cellphones and store them out of sight during instructional time.

Youngkin’s July 9 order blamed cellphones for a statewide surge in mental health crises.

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.