(The Center Square) – A state House committee on Tuesday moved a step closer to eliminating a major distraction in schools by passing a bill which – with many exceptions – would prohibit student cell phone use during the school day.
Lawmakers have struggled to come up with the best approach to the issue as overwhelming evidence shows phones are detracting from education. On Tuesday, the House Education Committee voted to overhaul a school cell phone “ban” bill that already had been passed by the Senate, and then voted to pass the altered bill itself. It also passed a duplicate bill that originated in the House.
The measure does not mandate that phones be taken from students. However, as was pointed out by committee Chairman Pete Schweyer, a Lehigh County Democrat, nothing in the bill “prevents the school district from doing that.”
Because the bill was amended, even if it passes the full House, it will need another vote of approval in the Senate. On Tuesday, the House committee action got a thumbs-up from the bill’s three leading proponents in the Senate: Republican Sen. Devlin Robinson of Allegheny County and Democratic Sens. Vincent Hughes of Philadelphia and Steve Santarsiero of Bucks County.
The amended bill, they said, provides “a clear, consistent statewide standard prohibiting cell phone use during the school day, while still allowing school districts the flexibility to implement policies in a way that works best for their communities.”
The overhauled bill requires all public and private school entities to implement policies starting with the 2027-28 school year that prohibit cell phone use throughout the day, including lunch and transitions between classes.
However, there are exceptions that include one for students with individualized education programs, or IEP’s; children with disabilities who have “504” plans; those with certain medical conditions; certain teacher-specified uses that are approved by a school principal; and a “general one-day exception” that can be called by a principal.
Pushback came from Republicans. Some said the exceptions would creates “have’s” and “have-not’s” in classrooms.
Beaver County Republican Rep. Roman Kozak, who has been a teacher, said “without a doubt” parents of children with IEP’s would request that cell phones be written into IEP plans. The mixed phone status in classrooms would create a situation where “teachers will not be able to enforce it” and will get frustrated – and ultimately the issue will come back to the Legislature, he said.
Republican Rep. Milou Mackenzie of Northampton County described the bill as “intervening and dictating in an authoritarian manner” what should be locally generated policy.
“I am vehemently opposed,” she said.
Schweyer, who crafted the amendment that overhauled the bill, called it “complex legislation.” He called it “my attempt to thread the needle.”
The bill now goes to the full House for consideration.
