In his state of the state address in February, Governor JB Pritzker called for a law banning cell phones in classrooms during his state of the state address last month. Last week he travelled to Champaign to propose his plan.
WSIU is exploring what area school districts are doing with cellphones in the classroom and how they think this law will impact their students.
Andrew Anderson is an assistant principal at Herrin High School. He explained the cell phone ban they've had in place for many years, "The cell phone policy has always been at Herrin High School that you can not have your cell phone on you during the day unless it's medically approved. When the 8:10 bell rings in the morning. It has to be put up in your locker. In between class periods you are able to do a quick check."
The story's a little different at Carbondale High School. According to Principal Ryan Thomas, teachers used to set the policy in their individual classrooms, but this year they're implementing a new policy for the whole school, "Our policy landed on a phrase that that we use as 'bell to bell no cell'. Bell to bell no cell means. Basically students can have cell phones on them. They can, you know, have them at lunch and before school. But, when they enter the classroom, cell phones are supposed to be put in a pouch at the front of the room."
Carbondale decided to adopt the school wide policy because students struggled when they had teachers with different expectations. They want to teach students how to handle cell phone use in situations outside of school.
Last month, Governor JB Pritzker announced his push for a statewide cell phone ban, "With educators and parents around this state, there is one thing that they commonly cite as an impediment to learning in the classroom. Cell phones. Furthermore, cyber bullying has expanded at alarming rates and it's time for Illinois to take measures to protect our kids."
The proposed bill calls on districts to implement a ban on phone use during instruction time. There are several exceptions in the bill. Those are for use during times of an emergency, educational purposes directed by the teacher, a medical need for a phone, or to help students who have special instructional needs.
The governor made his latest push last week in Champaign. He was promoting the school's program and several other similar ones from around the state. Mr. Pritzker says studies show improvements in student performance as well as their overall health and well-being.
Anderson agrees and says he's seen students learn skills to help them interact with others, "You can't always be behind a screen texting. You're going to learn how to look at someone in the eye. And you're going to have to learn how to communicate with them. We can teach English, math, science, history, all of that stuff is important. One thing that I do think we need to get back to more of is we need to start preparing kids to be adults."
Thomas has seen the policy work in Carbondale High School classrooms, "We've heard from teachers that the engagement is is more than they've had in a long time because the kids are not distracted. They're engaged with with the teacher, and it's protecting instructional time."
Thomas says students are getting used to the new policy, "Kids September and October were were high. Months for referrals. In in January and February are very, very low months for referrals. You know, our our kids have adapted to it."
The bill continues to make its way through the General Assembly. It has been assigned to education committees in both the House and the Senate.
Both principals say they're on board with the new bill. Anderson says Herrin's policy fits with the proposal in the General Assembly, so they'll leave everything as it is currently. Carbondale's pilot program has been effective, according to Thomas. He says they don't need to make many changes and he thinks they'll be ready to fully implement it next year.
