RICHMOND, Va. -- The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is encouraging people across the Commonwealth to weigh in on public schools going "cell phone-free."
Last month, Governor Glenn Youngkin issued Executive Order 33, establishing cell phone-free education in all of Virginia's K-12 public schools, citing cell phones and social media as a source of anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues among Virginia's students.
On Monday, Dr. Lisa Coons, VDOE's Superintendent of Public Instruction, fielded questions from parents, guardians, and educators about what going cell phone-free in schools could look like.
"I understand that cell phones cause distraction and not being able to answer notifications creates anxiety, but I'm concerned about the level of anxiety increasing when students all of a sudden don't have access to things they need, like their cell phones, especially if there's emergencies at home, family members that are in need of getting information to the students or the students who have health concerns, getting information back to their families," said Crystal Beauvais.
Dr. Coons said VDOE is collaborating with safety experts on best practices in case of an emergency in or out of the classroom, alongside medical professionals on how to meet individual students' health needs.
“We actually met with the School Nurses Association, and their associated pediatricians, as well as the VDH (Virginia Department of Health) this morning, and are working on supports and protections on how we support those students who are using their cell phones for glucose monitoring and elements like that," Dr. Coons said.
According to Dr. Coons, school nurses will be responsible for a "mental health tool kit," and each school nurse will be trained in "mental health first aid."
For students who may rely on their cell phones for translation services, Dr. Coons said VDOE is working with federal Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams for support.
Executive Order 33 also created a $500,000 funding pool for mental health support. Local school divisions will have to apply for mic-grants from the funding pool.
"We have partnered with the Secretary of Health, she has created a mental health task force with a variety of members on that mental health task force, to ensure that we are thinking about mental health, that we are thinking about that holistically," Dr. Coons said.
Two educators from Henrico County joined the virtual conversation and said they support the move, suggesting that cell phone use should be restricted for the school day.
"Having a phone away for just a class period puts all of the burden of enforcement on individual teachers, which is kind of unrealistic," said Jacob Green. "We have a 'phones away during instruction' policy already, and it is not effective."
Heather DeMascio said for about three-quarters of the last school year, students were allowed to have their cell phones with them in class. That changed during the last quarter of the year when students had to have their cell phones put away in a box.
"If the students had their phones and we were having 10 minutes until the end of class, everyone would be on their phone, and no one would be talking to each other. There was no community building between each student in the class. Once the phones were in the box, they had to talk to each other," DeMascio said. "I really like the idea of them putting the phones away at the beginning of the day, not having them throughout the day, and then having them at the end of the day if they need to check messages from work or from parents."
Teiko McCollough, a middle school teacher with children at the elementary school level, suggested starting at the elementary school level would be beneficial for students' learning.
"My children, specifically, what I see amongst them and their friends is an exposure to concepts and ideas that are arising earlier than they should be. And it's at a place where it makes it difficult as a parent to be able to manage basic educational needs, especially the core curriculum at that age," McCollough said.
Per Executive Order 33, VDOE must publish draft guidance for feedback by August 15, 2024. Final guidance should be issued by September 16.
School divisions will be tasked with adopting policies and procedures that are either in line with VDOE's guidelines or are more comprehensive than VDOE's guidelines, by January 1, 2025.
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