The new, two-year, $60 billion state budget includes a ban on cell phones in K-12 schools in Ohio. Now it’s up to schools to put that ban in place.
Gov. Mike DeWine had called for the ban on cell phones in schools in his State of the State speech earlier this year. A stand-alone bill was also proposed with bipartisan support, and was added to the budget. The state ban starts on January 1, but some schools want to implement it at the beginning of the academic year.
Dublin City Schools Superintendent John Marschhausen worked closely with state leaders on the ban. He said there’s already a ban on cell phone usage by students in that district’s elementary and middle schools, and he credits it for improved interactivity and learning.
"Students feel relieved, parents feel relieved,” Marschhausen said. “When you go into a cafeteria, you hear kids talking and it's loud and they're engaging. And they're not just staring at their screens.”
This upcoming school year, that ban will include the high school. Marschhausen said the policy is to allow students to carry their phones, but keep them off.
“We are going to ask them to put their phones in airplane mode or power them down and put them away,” Marschhausen said. “We’re not going to be taking them from students. We just need them out of sight, out of mind, powered down so that we can focus on learning in our classrooms.”
Marschhausen said that’s how the district will comply with the requirement that students have cell phone access in an emergency.
Ohio is one of at least 15 states with a ban on cell phone usage in schools. A Pew Research Center poll last fall showed 68% of Americans support a ban on cell phone usage in class, but around half that—36%—approve of all-day school bans on cell phones.
