Seattle Schools roll out new student cell phone restrictions starting Monday

District Superintendent Ben Shuldiner announced the policy Wednesday evening.

For K–8 students, cell phones will need to be turned off and put away all day. For high school students, phones will be banned during class time but allowed during lunch periods and passing times.

School board vice president Evan Briggs believes the complete ban should also apply to high school students. She wants that to happen by September.

“The stricter the cellphone policy, the better the outcomes,” Briggs said. “I’ve heard a cellphone described as having a slot machine in your pocket. And it is really unfair to put it on children that they need to regulate that impulse in them when they’re sitting in class.”

“What I’m trying to do, what we’re trying to do is have a clear, cogent and common-sense and enforceable policy,” Shuldiner said. “The thing is, almost all of our schools have open campuses for lunch. To create a rule that says it has to be away for the entire school day when in fact people leave for lunch is gonna cause an almost unenforceable thing.”

Shuldiner said the district will evaluate how the policy works for the rest of the school year, then re-assess it over the summer and possibly revise it in the fall.