Newsom nudges school districts to restrict student cellphone use

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California and South Carolina could go the adjacent states to bounds cellphone usage successful schools, with authorities officials readying to instrumentality up the contented Tuesday.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is sending letters to schoolhouse districts, urging them to restrict students' usage of smartphones connected campus. And the South Carolina State Board of Education is expected to o.k. guidelines Tuesday connected limiting pupil telephone access.

The efforts people a broader propulsion by officials successful Utah, Florida, Louisiana and elsewhere to effort to bounds cellphone usage successful schools successful bid to trim distractions successful the schoolroom - and code the impacts of societal media connected the intelligence wellness of children and teens.

But advancement tin beryllium challenging. Cellphone bans are already successful spot astatine galore schools, but they aren't ever enforced.

Districts should "act now" to assistance students absorption astatine schoolhouse by restricting their smartphone use, Newsom said successful the letter. He besides cited risks to the well-being of young people, a taxable which garnered renewed attraction successful June aft U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called connected Congress to necessitate informing labels connected societal media platforms.

"Every schoolroom should beryllium a spot of focus, learning, and growth," the Democrat said successful his letter. "Working together, educators, administrators, and parents tin make an situation wherever students are afloat engaged successful their education, escaped from the distractions connected the phones and pressures of societal media."

Newsom said earlier this summertime that helium was readying to code pupil smartphone use, and his missive says helium is moving connected it with the authorities Legislature. Tuesday's announcement is not a mandate but nudges districts to act.

Newsom signed a instrumentality successful 2019 granting districts the authorization to modulate pupil smartphone entree during schoolhouse hours.

The statement implicit banning cellphones successful schools to amended world outcomes is not new. But officials often edifice to bans arsenic a solution alternatively than find ways to integrate integer devices arsenic tools for learning, said Antero Garcia, a prof astatine Stanford University's Graduate School of Education.

"What I'm struck by is society's inability to benignant of determination guardant and find different kinds of solutions different than perpetually going backmost to this 'Should we prohibition devices?' speech arsenic the superior solution to thing that hasn't worked," Garcia said.

"Suggesting curtailing cellphone usage successful schools is simply a large happening to say," helium added. "What that means for the mediate schoolhouse teacher travel adjacent week erstwhile galore schools commencement is simply a precise antithetic picture."

Some schools and districts successful California person already taken action. The Santa Barbara Unified and Los Angeles Unified schoolhouse districts passed bans connected pupil cellphone usage successful caller years.

But immoderate schoolhouse committee advocates accidental the authorities should not spell further by passing a broad prohibition connected cellphone use. That determination should beryllium near up to districts, said Troy Flint, spokesperson for the California School Boards Association.

"Cellphone usage and societal media usage connected field is surely a superior contented and 1 that deserves a adjacent examination," Flint said. "But those decisions are precise circumstantial to definite schools and definite communities, and they request to beryllium made astatine a section level."

There is nary cure-all for protecting students from the risks posed by smartphones, but the authorities is "opening up a conversation" connected however districts could act, said David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Association.

"It makes consciousness for america arsenic adults to beryllium looking and trying to instrumentality attraction of students and let them to person harmless spaces to learn," helium said. "How we bash it is besides precise important - that we marque definite that we bring students into these conversations and educators into these conversations."