Lawmakers advance Iowa Gov. Reynolds’ bill restricting cellphone use in classrooms

DES MOINES — Schools would be required to prohibit students from having phones during instructional time under a bill from Gov. Kim Reynolds that was advanced by lawmakers.

The proposed legislation, Senate Study Bill 1065, would require school districts restrict cellphone use for K-12 students. At a minimum, schools would be required to ban cellphone use during instructional time.

The governor’s office, teacher groups and Iowa school administrators said such policies help improve students’ concentration, decrease cyberbullying, and address concerns about students’ mental health.

Reynolds first proposed the policy in her Condition of the State address last month, citing concerns over cellphones being distractions to students in classrooms.

Reynolds’ bill received its first legislative hearing Wednesday in the Iowa Senate.

“With digital distractions at an all-time high, Gov. Reynolds wants to ensure that Iowa’s classrooms maintain environments where focus, learning and productivity can truly thrive,” Molly Severn, legislative liaison for Gov. Reynolds, told a three-member subcommittee of the Senate Education Committee.

“According to the Pew Research Center, seven in 10 teachers say cellphone distractions are a major problem in their classroom,” Severn said.

Several school districts across Iowa already have cellphone policies and restrictions in place, including the Ottumwa, Ankeny and Ames school districts. In December, the Iowa City school board approved a cellphone policy that requires phones, earbuds and headphones to be “detached from the student’s body” during instructional time.

The Cedar Rapids district also is researching cellphones in schools and potential policies, Superintendent Tawana Grover told The Gazette.

Under the proposed legislation, all Iowa school districts would be required to adopt by July 1, 2025, minimum standards for restrictions on personal electronic devices.

The legislation also would require training for sixth through eighth grade students on the “effects of social media."

“In Iowa and across the nation, we have seen that schools implementing these cellphone policies have experienced fewer disruptive behaviors, including physical aggression, fewer instances of bullying — including social-media related conflicts — and they’ve also experienced increased student engagement and improved student and teacher morale,” McKenzie Snow, director of the Iowa Department of Education, said at the legislative hearing.

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How would a cellphone ban in schools work?

Reynolds’ bill sets a “floor,” or a baseline, requiring Iowa accredited private, public, charter and innovation zone schools to establish policies that at a minimum restrict the use of personal electronic devices during classroom instructional time, beginning with the 2025-26 school year. That includes smartphones, cellphones, video game devices and “portable media players.”

Schools could adopt more stringent policies, should they choose.

Teachers also would be required to teach students in sixth through eighth grades about the effects of social media, with a focus on the impact on student mental health, as part of schools’ health curriculum.

The bill requires the Iowa Department of Education and Iowa Department of Health and Human Services Department to devise professional development to assist teachers in providing such instruction to students.

The state Department of Education would provide sample policies for school districts to consider. It also would provide guidance along with the Iowa Department of Public Safety to school districts to revise emergency operations plans to take into account the new policies.

Reynolds’ bill requires such policies create a way for a parent or guardian to contact their child if there's an emergency during school hours, and include protocols to "securely store a student's personal electronic device when such device is in possession of the school district.“

The legislation also would require school districts to spell out the discipline a student can receive for using a cellphone during class or a test.

Students with a documented disability or special education needs, as outlined in their Individualized Education Program (IEP), would be allowed to use personal electronic devices when necessary to manage their disability effectively or access specialized instruction or supports.

Parents or guardians of students also could petition a school district to allow the student to maintain access to their cellphone during the school day, if they can “establish that there is a legitimate reason related to the student’s physical or mental health.”

What did lawmakers, school officials have to say?

The subcommittee advanced the bill for further consideration by the full Senate Education Committee, with Sens. Jeff Taylor, R-Sioux Center, and Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, supporting the bill.

“We are hearing from school districts that they would like a little push — some support in moving in this direction — because in some communities they feel that they need that. And I’m more than willing to help them have that support,” Evans said.

Taylor noted his son’s high school this year moved to banning cellphones during the school day.

“I think it’s been working quite well in his school setting,” he said.

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Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, declined to advance the bill, stating parents should not have to petition school districts for permission to “undertake measures essential to the student’s health.”

“You can imagine a situation where a student who has … diabetes, epilepsy, food allergies, asthma — there are lots of situations where students may need to have immediate access, first of all, to their parents to let them know something is going on, but also direct access to medical resources to help them avoid a catastrophe,” Quirmbach said.

He also questioned the need for the legislation.

"School districts are going to need the ability to tailor policies to the individual needs of the school districts. One size isn’t going to fit all here,“ he said. “Given that everyone is already moving in the right direction and has the authority to do so, why does the governor need to get involved? Well, frankly, I think it’s to distract from the general failure of the governor’s educational policies across the board.”

Groups representing Iowa teachers, administrators and school boards were undecided, but generally supportive of the bill. Several raised concerns about timelines included for enacting the bill, wanting to make sure they have guidance first from the state on emergency operations plans before having to implement polices that may later have to be redone.

Des Moines Public Schools and Professional Educators of Iowa were registered in support of the bill.

“There seems to be at least bipartisan consensus that cellphones and social media are a problem for young minds in particular,” said Nathan Arnold, a lobbyist representing Professional Educators of Iowa. “It hurts their ability to focus. It hurts their ability to learn. It hurts their ability to remember things. It contributes to disruptions that make teaching very difficult. … So for a host of reasons, I think the teaching profession will be better if we minimize or even eliminate cellphone use from the classroom.”

Melissa Peterson, a lobbyist representing the Iowa State Education Association — a union that represents Iowa's public school educators — said the bill “will help make sure that there are consistent policies” across the state.

“We appreciate the thoughtfulness of this legislation, and we look forward to working with everyone as the discussion moved forward,” Peterson said.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com