‘Less distraction, more connection’: TN school district drafts new policy to keep students off phones
WARREN COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Students in Warren County begin the new school year Tuesday with a new cellphone policy.
School board members decided to have campuses go “device-free” because of issues with students being distracted.
“It was actually born out of a discussion that our school board just took up at the end of one of our meetings and really began talking about the fact that they were just continuing to hear from teachers and our community and seeing growing research throughout the country that said that our kids are being inundated with notifications,” said Warren County Director of Schools Dr. Grant Swallows.
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The district adopted a new policy saying students can’t possess phones and other devices unless they’re in some sort of restrictive environment. Enter, the Yondr pouch. The district purchased more than 3,000 of them at about $20 each to be issued to students in grades 6th through 12th for the entire school year.
“It was a significant cost to the district. But at the same time, we felt like we were giving them really a privilege,” said Dr. Swallows.
When each student arrives to school, they’ll place any personal electronic devices brought to school into the Yondr pouch. That includes phones, earbuds, and smart watches.
The pouch will be locked at the start of the school day and the students may keep the pouch with them. The pouches will only be unlocked after the 2:45 p.m. bell by holding the pouch up to a Yondr magnet that’s available at exits as students leave the building.
“We know there are kids that are going to need to bring their device. What we would say is that it would be better if they didn’t bring it all,” said Dr. Swallows. “But we do understand that kids need a device. They have practices after school, or they may be riding a different bus.”
Dr. Swallows explained that he’s a parent of students in the district himself and understands concerns from other parents about not being able to contact their child on a cell phone. He says teachers have phones in classrooms and multiple ways for a parent to reach their child.
“Our greatest responsibility is to keep them safe and make sure that they have what they need throughout the day, because every day they drop them off, they trust us with doing that, and we’re asking them to trust us again with this,” he said. “We are not, again, trying to punish them. We’re not trying to make life harder on them, but we are trying to give their kids a better environment.”
According to Yondr, they partner with thousands of schools across 27 countries and 83% saw an improvement in student engagement in the classroom and 74% saw an improvement in student behavior.
“There’s always an outlier when it comes to data. But again, the discussion around the board was, if we can give our schools the opportunity to see discipline rates go down and achievement rates go up, why would we not give this a try?” Swallows said.
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District leaders purchased the pouches in the summer but they are not expected to arrive until about September as they become more popular amongst other school districts.
“We want to have less distraction for them, and more connection, not only with their schoolwork and the things they need to do in school, but more connection with others. Because we really missed out on that.”
To learn more Warren County Schools’ device policy, click here.
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