PORT ANGELES — As students across the North Olympic Peninsula settle into the 2024-2025 school year, they are encountering updated rules about cell phone use.
The policies in place at public school districts in Clallam and Jefferson counties vary in approach and enforcement, but they all reflect what superintendents said was an attempt to create a distraction-free learning environment and lessen the negative impact cell phones and social media have on student mental health.
Changes in policies reflect a dramatic increase in cell phone ownership among school-age youth.
According to a 2022 report from Common Sense Media, in 2015, 67 percent of 13- to 18-year-olds had their own phones. In 2021, that number jumped to 88 percent.
The impact has been felt in classrooms. According to the Pew Research Center, about 72 percent of high school teachers surveyed in fall 2023 reported that students distracted by cell phones were a were a major problem in the classroom.
Washington is among at least 14 states that have taken steps to address cell phones on K-12 campuses and in classrooms. Actions range from statewide mandates banning their use to setting deadlines for implementing policies.
On Aug. 28, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal, who is running for reelection, called on districts to update or institute policies limiting student access to cell phones and digital technology by the start of the 2025-2026 academic year.
A bill in the Legislature this year, House Bill 2018, that would have banned cellphone use during instructional hours by the start of the 2027-2028 school year had bipartisan support, but stalled after it passed out of committee.
The bill — or something similar — likely will be revisited during the next session.
Superintendents on the Olympic Peninsula were ambivalent about a blanket cell phone law like Florida’s, which would apply to every school in the state. Districts in Washington are too varied, they said, not just in the number of students, but location — rural and urban — economy, demographics and culture to create a one-size-fits-all rule.
This year, the Chimacum School District put into place a new no-cell-phone policy at its schools that seems to be working so far.
“From the time of the first bell to the end of the day, students are not allowed to have their phones at all during the school day,” Superintendent Scott Mauk said. “They’re not to be seen, they’re not to be used, they’re not to be checked. Nothing.”
The reason for the stricter policy is simple, Mauk said.
“They’re just a huge distraction,” Mauk said. “Kids are constantly using them in class and they’re not paying attention. They’re not engaged, and they’re not engaging with each other.”
Port Angeles High School students and their parents must sign a form at the beginning of the year that states the school’s cell phone and electronic device policy: cell phones, headphones and earbuds must be turned off and put away before students enter the classroom and may only be used when directed to do so by a teacher.
The Quilcene School District’s policy allows students to use their phones before and after school, between classes and during lunch, but not in the classroom. Superintendent Ron Moag said the district sought a realistic and equitable policy — and one everyone had to abide by, including teachers.
“You can’t sit up in front of class and be on the phone when the kids are working on a project or doing something that doesn’t need your direct instruction,” he said.
Students in the Brinnon School District, which has fewer than 100 students enrolled in kindergarten through eighth grade, can only use their phones during breakfast and lunch.
Students have been mostly compliant because it’s the only policy they’ve known and because of the culture of respect the district has worked to cultivate, Superintendent Patricia Beathard said.
“When the teacher says, ‘Put away your phone,’ you put away your phone,” Beathard said. “We follow our procedure, and it it hasn’t been a big deal for us.”
Superintendents said much of the pushback against restricting cell phone use came from parents who want to maintain contact with their children throughout the day. Events like the Sept. 4 shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia that killed two 14-year-old students and two teachers renewed debates about the pros and cons of cell phone policies and parents’ abilities to ensure their children are safe.
Superintendents said if there was an emergency, systems in place would alert parents. They also pointed out that phones could distract students from following directions from staff during an unfolding emergency, potentially risking the safety of everyone in a classroom.
Diana Reaume, superintendent of the Quillayute Valley School District, said revising the district’s cell phone policy is both a top-down and a bottom-up process.
“The board had been reviewing student data and our schools reviewed surveys from parents and students, and then we had feedback from teachers,” Reaume said.
“Everyone came to the conclusion that life in the classroom would be better without cell phone distractions.”
Students are free to use their cell phones between classes and during lunch, but they have to put them away in the classroom. Reaume said it is up to teachers to determine how to ensure the policy is followed.
One middle school teacher set up container with individual slots by the door known as the “phone farm” for students to use.
“They just put their phones in there on the way in and then pick them up on the way out,” Reaume said. “It looked like a really easy way to manage the situation.”
Students are not allowed to carry cell phones at Port Townsend elementary schools, and they must be silenced during instructional time at the middle and high schools.
Superintendent Linda Rosenbury said the district had researched schools that had completely banned cell phones from campuses, requiring students to hand them in at the beginning of the day before they get them back after classes end.
“I have heard that students may choose to skip school if the restrictions are so tight and they don’t feel trusted,” Rosenbury said. “And, we’re not teaching life skills of how to manage your cell phone use in a work environment.”
The district’s approach to cell phones was consistent with its wellness-centered approach to learning that applied to all of its policy decision-making, Rosenbury said.
“There are some studies that talk about what makes adolescents feel good and some of that is agency,” Rosenbury said.
The best way to develop and implement policies, such as those for cell phones, is to include students in the decision-making process, she said.
“The best solutions are co-created with students leading to their buy-in, giving them a sense of agency, and empowering them,” Rosenbury said.
The Crescent School District in Joyce has had a policy in place for about 15 years prohibiting students from using cell phones and other electronic devices during class, Superintendent David Bingham said. He compared debates over cell phones in the classroom to ones about 40 years ago over the use of calculators in math classes.
At the time, they were seen as malignant invaders, robbing students of the ability to think for themselves, until they were eventually recognized as tools that could be useful for teaching and learning.
The difference with cell phones, Bingham said, is the detrimental impact social media could have on students — particularly the potential for harassment and bullying.
Very few students back in the day sat transfixed in front of a calculator or used it target others, he said.
“There’s a lot of evidence on what screen time is doing to this generation,” Bingham said. “It’s a bigger issue than what goes on in the classroom.”
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reach by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
