Maryland’s largest school district is testing a new cellphone policy this year.
Montgomery County Public Schools wants to cut down on cellphone use during school hours.
“It was really disturbing to, you know, see a classroom and someone try to teach and talk to the students and kids are playing games or sending messages on their cellphone and completely tuning themselves out of the class,” County Executive Marc Elrich said.
MCPS’s current mobile device policy says cellphones can’t be out during the day for elementary school students.
In middle school, principals and teachers get to determine if students can have them out during lunch or for instructional reasons.
High school students also are allowed to use them during lunch and transition time.
In a new pilot program, students at several schools will not be able to use their cellphones at all during the school day.
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“We have reached out to a number of schools who were interested, who are interested in piloting a more restrictive environment where cellphones are away all day,” MCPS Chief of Strategic Initiatives Stephanie Sheron said.
It’s part of a comprehensive study to figure out how it could work countywide.
“Our goal is that we will be taking a look this spring at our regulation in order to determine what changes are potentially needed for the next school year,” Sheron said.
This year, students will not be able to access social media sites like Instagram, Snapchat or X while using MCPS’s network to minimize distractions and improve students’ focus on education.
“No one needs to have a phone on when they’re in a classroom,” Elrich said. “No one needs to be playing games or texting or looking at social media when they’re in a classroom. That ought to be unacceptable, and it was disappointing that this was not done earlier.”
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