New York Governor Kathy Hochul has included more than $13 million in her executive budget to support a statewide ban on cellphones in schools.
The Democrat’s proposal would give local districts discretion on how to keep phones and other devices out of the hands of students from “bell to bell.”
New York’s largest teachers’ union is backing the effort.
WAMC's Lucas Willard spoke with New York State United Teachers union president Melinda Person about Hochul’s plan.
We have been hearing from our members for a couple of years now that cell phones are a real challenge in our classrooms, especially since we came back from COVID, our students are showing up distracted by constant notifications. We're seeing kids gaming during the day, using social media and hearing about kids inability to focus on learning while they're at school. And so, we started talking to folks about a solution, probably little over a year ago, and the momentum has been growing since.
Now, Governor Kathy Hochul has included money in her budget proposal for school districts to use to find a way to keep the cell phones out of the hands of students from "bell to bell," as she puts it. Is there a particular method that NYSUT is in favor of, whether it be pouches or a locker, is there a particular strategy that NYSUT prefers to restrict cell phone use at school?
We are not wedded to any particular strategy. I think what's important for us is that it's a "bell to bell" solution, so that it's not something that where phones are in and out of the classroom during the day, and that it does not become something that our educators have to enforce in individual classrooms the collection of devices and then the disbursement of devices, because that is a real challenge.
How has that individual classroom, as you mentioned, how has that patchwork, up until now, maybe not been effective? Where have teachers been met with resistance for those who want to restrict the use of cell phones in school?
What I've heard from our members is that it has really led to a loss of instructional time, because it takes time at the beginning of class to collect everything and then time at the end to redistribute. Then there's the time of you know, if there's not a consistency across the building or the district, there can be struggles about, you know, but in this class, I'm allowed to right. So that's why having a uniform statewide and building wide and district wide policy is so important.
Now, what about the concern that many parents expressed and and even Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has said, you know, [paraphrase] "I'd like to have my my child reachable in case of an emergency."
And I think the governor's proposal does address that, and requires all districts to have in place a way for parents to reach their kids. And I think the Speaker was specifically referring to sort of the travel time between home and school, which I can relate to. And I think this policy only talks about during the school day, while they're in school, so parents can always call a school in an emergency or to reach their child or to get a message to their child, just like they did, you know, when I was a kid, but the bill does specifically say that districts will have to come up with a communication plan, because we do want parents to be able to reach their kids if they need to.
Now, outside of restrictions at school, does NYSUT have any guidance for maybe parents in the school community about reducing screen time? Because we can say the students can't use their cell phones in the classroom, but screen time addiction is a real thing.
Yes, and I would say this is the first step to sort of talking about this as a broader public health issue. I would say, you know, when our Surgeon General last year came out and said the impact of social media on young people is similar to the impact of cigarettes right, when he drew that parallel, it started a lot of conversations in the public health community about how we as a society need to start looking into the impact of phones and social media on our youth more broadly. What we're doing here is focusing on, you know, at least, giving kids the seven hours a day on average, of time and space without these distractions.
And does NYSUT have any communications that it's sending to union members about the governor's proposal or otherwise encouraging teachers to implement cell phone restrictions?
We have encouraged our local leaders to reach out to their district administration and start a conversation about what's going to happen locally. The Governor's proposal allows for a lot of local discretion, and so we want our members to be a part of that process.
And are you confident that this is a proposal, the governor's proposal, that will make it through the budget negotiations.
I am extremely hopeful. I have not heard a lot of strong opposition from anyone at this point. There are a lot of people who have questions, you know, around specifically around safety issues and making sure that parents have everything that they need. But once we've spoken to folks who have questions and answer them and and brought in law enforcement to talk about the safety issues and talk to parents about the very real data that shows the negative impact of these phones during the school day, most people that we've spoken to really come around and actually support the proposal.
