Policies Concerning Personal Cell Phone Use

This summer, both Fullerton Elementary and High School districts updated their board policies. Last June, the high school district board approved a year-long, sweeping policy update made by an internal team of administrators and consultants with little public discussion between trustees about the policy details. With administrative support, the elementary school district trustees spent a good portion of the summer meetings updating two policies concerning personal cell phone use and appropriate adult/student interaction policies. The two district policies are similar, but the policy implementation may lead to different outcomes. 

Board policy 5131.8 concerns personal communication devices. The districts are separate, but board policy numbers are the same due to state education codes. Both FJUHSD and FSD policies similarly ban the use of personal devices (cell phones, smart watches, glasses, etc.) in the classroom except, in case of emergency, medical authorization, and if covered under an Individual Education Plan, but elementary district trustee policy discussions led to additional policy changes and focused mainly on trustee support for enforcing the policy. FSD trustees shared recent research findings that neurological disturbances from personal communication device notifications distracted young people from learning and caused emotional distress.

The discussion revealed that teachers and principals shoulder most policy enforcement responsibilities, and many distractions come from parents texting their children during the school day. The FSD board voted to restrict all personal communication device use (with the above exceptions) during the entire school day, removing some staff options and lessening the enforcement burden since trustees publicly asked staff to directly direct parental complaints about the policy to them. FSD communicated the new policy to district families in multiple ways before school started. At the August 20 board meeting, FSD Trustees Hilda Sugarman and Ruthi Hanchett reported few parental complaints and many positive communications during the first two weeks of school. Trustee Hanchett (ruthi_hanchett@myfsd.org) requested more parents share with her their good and bad experiences with the new policy.

FJUHSD’s 5131.8 policy limits the use of cell phones on campus to noninstructional time and requires all personal communication devices to be off during class time. Teachers enforce the policy with administrator backup, leaving different classrooms with inconsistent and mixed implementation. The policy is wrapped into new school year notifications and listed on individual campus websites. Parental understanding of the policy is mixed at best. With no public board discussions, it is hard to know if student cell phone use during instructional time concerns high school teachers or parents or if the trustees are even aware of policy implementation issues, so they cannot provide additional support to teachers who have to enforce the policy to mitigate some of the daily distractions students may be facing from notifications and social media.

Appropriate Adult/Student Interaction Policy

Both districts updated board policy 4119.24 concerning appropriate adult/student interactions. By law, this policy applies to all teachers, support staff, and outside contractors interacting with students. It explicitly states that all interactions and communications between adults and students from TK to grade 12 must be transparent to administration and guardians, whether in person or electronically. No individual personal emails, social media connections, closed-door conferences, and no inappropriate contact. If teachers need to individually contact a student, it should be done through school email and include the administration in the communication (administrators have access to all school emails and AERIES accounts). Group texts set up for classrooms and approved extracurricular sports and activities are fine. The high school district has an exception for community sport and activity interaction but recommends a staff member keep the administration informed of any outside school student interactions (like coaching and mentoring).

The elementary district trustees discussed this policy and supported additional training for all teachers, support staff, and outside vendors interacting with students to clarify the policy for all adults on school sites. The high school board approved this policy, and the other 600 board policies were updated last June. Board policy 4119.24 covers uncomfortable issues, but to paraphrase FSD Trustee Hanchett, normalizing discussions concerning these interactions makes it easier for students and adults to share uncomfortable situations faster and allows the collective district cultures to care for both staff and students better.

FJUHSD spent the last year updating almost all their board and administrative policies, but without any public board discussions concerning any policies directly affecting students, they bypass new perspectives and insights from the Student Board members and the current trustees. Board members may be unaware of issues that impair policy implementation or leave undue burdens or unintended consequences for students or staff. Updating policies is only half the job of the board, as the FSD elementary trustee discussions revealed personal communication device policy implementation challenges, introduced additional parental communication pathways and worked to clarify personal boundaries for students, families, teachers, and support staff.