The Pennsylvania Senate Education Committee voted unanimously on Tuesday to advance a bill to make all schools phone-free in the state.
The bill now goes to the full state Senate for a vote. If it becomes law, it would require schools to adopt their own policies prohibiting cellphone use during the whole school day. There are exceptions for medical and other special needs.
Two-thirds of states have laws restricting cell phone use in schools, and 20 states are phone-free the entire school day from bell to bell.
Schools across the country are finding different ways to implement phone bans. At Sto-Rox Schools, the students put their phones in basic folders when they enter school, and those are locked up until the end of the day.
This year, a new type of pouch by a company called Generation Faraday is being used in Los Angeles and San Diego public schools. The students put their phones in their bags, and they block the signal so there are no notifications. In some schools, the students keep the bag with them and unlock it on their way out of school.
“Our bags are big enough to actually fit a cell phone, smartwatches, smart glasses, earbuds — they’re quite large,” said Jennifer Andrulewicz, Generation Faraday’s chief growth officer. “There’s signal blocking, so once things go into that pouch, (students) are not going to be able to interact with any of their devices at all.”
The Generation Faraday bag costs between $28 to $35. Pennsylvania offered a pilot program using Yondr pouches, which lock phones in a bag but don’t block the signal to the phone.
