Oklahoma committee advances bill addressing cell phone use in schools

(The Center Square) – A bill banning student cell phones in the classroom advanced out of the Appropriations and Budget Education Subcommittee on Monday.

House Bill 3913 would create a one-year pilot program to give public schools grants that make classrooms “phone-free spaces.”

Schools would be able to use grant money to buy equipment to store students’ cell phones during the day, according to the bill.

The bill would also direct schools to adopt a policy for emergency use of cell phones by students during the school day.

The pilot program would include nine schools and run through the 2024-2025 school year.

The bill doesn’t specify how much money the pilot program would cost. When asked, bill author Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, said the number is “fluid.”

“The beauty of the bill is that it doesn’t subscribe a particular method so it really is a pretty fluid number in the sense of I’m aware of one solution you could do for probably $5 to $10 a classroom,” said Caldwell. “You’ve got others that are $30 a student. So it just kind of depends on what program the school thinks would best serve them and their students.”

Caldwell also fielded questions about what emergency policies for cell phone usage would entail.

“The sad reality is that kids are in a position now where sometimes they’re having to communicate with their parents over a cell phone about a shooting at school for instance,” said Rep. Andy Fugate, D-Oklahoma City.

Caldwell said he believed those situations could be better in phone-free environments.

“Security experts will actually tell you that kids are better served if everyone doesn’t have access to their phone because that’s a lot of, they’re distracted, there’s a lot of extra noise, so if you take out that distraction and there’s one voice leading that, the teacher in front of the classroom that helps direct them to that as far as what to do and how to do it, I actually think they would be, the students are better served in that regard,” said Caldwell.

Some schools in Oklahoma have already gone cell phone-free in the classroom, according to Caldwell. He added that there is a lot of flexibility built into the bill.

“I think that ultimately at the end of the day that the goal here is to get our students eyes off of their cell phone and in front of the classroom where they belong,” Caldwell said.

Other states are considering similar bills. Washington State’s bill would ban cell phone use by students, with a few exceptions. A Virginia bill that gives local school districts the authority to establish policies regarding cell phone use by students passed the Senate and is in a House committee.