The U.S. Department of Education is calling on every state, district and school to adopt policies that guide the use of student personal devices in schools, and has issued a new resource, “Planning Together: A Playbook for Student Personal Device Policies,” which offers a model process that education leaders can use to design policies for use of cell phones and other personal devices in schools alongside educators, students, parents and caregivers. It provides a set of step-by-step practices for building shared understanding of the needs and concerns surrounding cell phones in a school community and recommendations for addressing them through clear and consistent policies.

“In this digital age, every elementary, middle, and high school should have a clear, consistent, and research-informed policy to guide the use of phones and personal devices in school,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, in a news release. “I want our department to be a resource to school leaders. That is why we are issuing a new guide to help support education officials and local communities in developing policies that are understandable and enforceable, and prioritize learning while ensuring student safety.”

Although we know that phones can play an important role in helping parents keep in touch with their children, especially in emergencies, a growing body of evidence is cause for concern about the impact of cell phones in schools and on our young people. In addition to impacting the ability of students to stay on task and focus during class, social media accessed on cell phones may also have negative health effects for some young people like depression and suicidal ideation, sleep disruption or exposure to cyberbullying.

The prompts in the playbook are designed to support every school, school district or state to develop a policy that fits their local context — including policies that further restrict or prohibit the use of devices during school time. It includes examples and resources around cell phone policies, as well as additional reading to better understand the student personal device issue, sample device policies from across the country, and additional considerations for the development and implementation of personal device policies.

Find the playbook on ACSA’s Resource Hub at content.acsa.org/planning-together-a-playbook-for-student-personal-device-policies.