The Arkansas Legislature is moving forward with a bill regulating cell phone use in public schools.
The bill by Sen. Tyler Dees, R-Siloam Springs, to limit device use in schools was approved Monday by a unanimous vote in the Senate Education Committee. The “Bell to Bell, No Cell Act” wouldn’t necessarily prohibit students from having phones on school property, but would ban using their phones during school hours.
Dees said the law is intentionally written to give schools leeway in how to implement the policy.
“Parents are entrusting the safety and education and development of our children,” he said.
During the meeting, Dees referenced studies showing kids often send and receive messages during class, along with the correlation between smartphones and a decrease in sleep.
Dees told the committee he is concerned about ongoing research indicating a link between phones and mental health issues.
“Thinking back to our experiences in school, if you had an embarrassing moment, maybe in your cafeteria where you slipped and fell and dropped your meal across the cafeteria, students would laugh and make fun of you. But now it lives forever.”
The bill also makes exceptions, allowing students to access their phones in an emergency situation, or if they need their phones as a disability accommodation. Dees said they have worked on the bill for over a year.
“We've had multiple drafts and frankly some of the drafts were more restrictive, and that didn't feel right,” he said. “All we are saying is it has to be ‘bell to bell no cell’ but they get to decide what that looks like for their schools.”
This follows a pilot program across the state enacting the same policy, which Dees said was successful.
“We've seen a reduction in disciplinary issues, we've seen a reduction in missed assignments. We’ve seen attendance records improve," he said.
The bill passed unanimously, and will move to the full Senate for a vote.