Cellphone policies for Charlottesville City Schools align with new Virginia guidelines for students using the devices during school hours. Albemarle County Public Schools will need to make changes to their policy, though the district’s middle schools follow the new guidelines already, say spokespeople.
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) issued the guidance on cellphones in schools in September, at Gov. Glen Youngkin’s direction.
Charlottesville City Schools officials said that its current “Off and Away the Entire Day” policy is in line with language used by the VDOE, which states cellphones should be turned off and stored from the first bell of the school day until the dismissal bell at the end of the school day. “Bell-to-bell” includes lunch and time in between class periods, according to VDOE.
Beth Cheuk, supervisor of community relations for Charlottesville City Schools, said the district “adopted the philosophy” of the governor’s plan “a couple of years ago.”
A 2023 flier on the district’s website notes how distracting cellphones can be when students are in the classroom, along with the harm they cause to some students’ mental health.
“Our new school practice will be to keep phones and personal devices off and away the entire day,” the website reads.
Cheuk added that the school system is reviewing some aspects of the bell-to bell policy, such as the use of cellphones during field trips.
Meanwhile, Albemarle County Public Schools’ existing cellphone policy will need some adjustments to get in line with the new guidelines. The district’s policy prohibits cellphone use during class. But, unlike City Schools, it allows Albemarle’s high school students to use their phones during lunch and in between classes.
The district’s high school students are prohibited from using phones in restrooms and locker rooms, the website states. Middle school students must have their devices turned off and placed in their lockers for the entire school day.
The Albemarle County School Board will discuss changes to its policy within the next few months, said ACPS spokesperson Helen Dunn.
The district this year purchased Yondr pouches — which are locking cloth pouches that make students’ phones inaccessible during school day — for students at Walton Middle School. The district is treating the middle school as a pilot program, Dunn said. It will gather data and feedback from students, teachers and parents, then decide whether to purchase the pouches for all schools.
The Yondr pouches are “working well,” Albemarle County School Board Chair Judy Le said in an email to Charlottesville Tomorrow. “It seems, though, that even without the pouches, our other middle schools have had great success with their ‘Away for the Day’ program, so we anticipate that we will be able to scale that out and expand it further through ACPS soon, in compliance with the state’s policy guidance.”
Youngkin’s new cell phone guidelines passed after the VDOE received nearly 6,000 public comments, including feedback during several conversations last summer with more than 1,160 Virginians, according to the department. The goal is to reduce what educators and parents describe as a “mental health crisis and chronic health conditions from cell phones and social media.”
“These comments reinforced the importance of ‘Bell-to-bell’ Cell Phone-Free Education to help teachers focus on learning and not discipline, ensure students submitted authentic work, and allow students to develop critical communication skills,” said a VDOE news release.
A focus on learning and not getting “caught up in the drama that social media often causes during instructional hours,” also was a major concern voiced during the meetings.
Jessie Higgins and Tamica Jean-Charles contributed to this report.
