SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed a bill establishing the Phone-Free School Act. It is the state’s newest response to the negative impacts smartphones can have on school children.

The act requires every school district, charter school and county office of education to develop a policy limiting the use of smartphones by July 1, 2026.

It expands on Governor Newsom’s 2019 bill, which specified that school districts have the authority to regulate the use of smartphones during school hours.

Although not required by the new law until 2026, Lake Tahoe Unified School District Superintendent, Todd Cutler, says the district already has a policy on smartphones. “The new law wouldn’t necessarily change this.”

LTUSD’s policy states mobile communication devices shall be turned off during instructional time. However, it states students shall not be prohibited from possessing or using a mobile communication device in certain circumstances such as in the case of emergency, when a teacher administering instruction authorizes the use of possession of mobile, when licensed physicians determine the possession is necessary, or when the possession is required by student individual educational programs.

In expressing the importance of the bill, the governor’s office states smartphone use is linked to anxiety, depression and other mental health issues in youth and cites a recent Pew Research Center survey that found that 72% of high school and 33% of middle school teachers report cellphone distractions as a major problem. Common Sense Media found that 97% of students use their phones during the school day for a median of 43 minutes. 

Cutler says South Lake Tahoe schools are no different. “We do see the disruption and the distraction. We do, unfortunately, see some of the bullying and mistreatment of others through the social media platforms, through texting, through different sources that the kids use to communicate.”

Although the benefits of limiting phone use in schools are well stated, Cutler says restricting cellphone use isn’t so simple. “Parents want to make sure that they can get connected to their children, and so you got to be really, really careful.”

The Phone-Free School Act requires that parents and educators must allow students to use their phones in the case of an emergency, or in response to a perceived threat of danger, or as allowed by a teacher, administrators, doctor or the student’s individualized education program.

Jude Wood, Executive Director of the Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe and a parent of a student herself, finds the new bill a good idea. “I am 100% in support.” Although she understands parents want to stay in touch, believes school structure provides plenty of opportunity for parent-child connection outside of class time. “There is ample time to have that connection with your child between classrooms or during recess or at lunchtime.”

She also recommends parents make it a point at the beginning of each day to touch base with their children on the upcoming day’s activities. “Rather than relying on your phone to communicate with your kid, perhaps this is where you all have breakfast together and you plan out your day and everybody talks about where they’re going to be.”

LTUSD implements the existing phone policy differently from school to school. Cutler explains at South Tahoe High School, students must keep their cellphones put away and silenced while in class. “They are not requiring them to be put away for the entire day, just during class time.”

At the middle school, students are required to keep the cellphones put away throughout the day.

In elementary schools, they require students to keep cellphones put away throughout the day as well, but Cutler says it isn’t as much of a problem since many elementary students don’t have cellphones.

At Mount Tallac High School, students who attend for three hours per day are required to turn cellphones into a phone locker and receive them back upon departure. “Now understand, Mount Tallac is a smaller population of students, and it’s a shorter school day,” Cutler says, but according to staff there, the turn-in policy has been a game changer for students.

“The students are less distracted,” Cutler reports, “seem happier, aren’t on edge waiting when their phone buzzes and they have to see it.”

But in world whose technology is rapidly advancing, Cutler explains it can often be hard to implement regulations that keep up.

“One of the things that we are concerned about is that, sure, they put their cellphones away, they’re silenced, but their watch is connected to them, right? And technology will continue to advance and create new challenges like that.”

That’s why the district board wants to be cautious before updating or changing their smartphone policy and wait for a recommendation from the California School Boards Association.

“So, we’re going to sit back right now as a district and implement what we’re implementing” the superintendent says, “and wait to see what is recommended for policy change.”