Orange County School Board approves student cellphone use ban, with some exceptions

ORLANDO, Fla. - Orange County Public Schools won't be allowing students to use their phones starting this year between the opening bell and dismissal.

Teachers can choose to allow phones for educational purposes.

Students can still have phones with them, but the devices need to be silenced and put away somewhere like a backpack or a purse.

Board members decided not to allow students to have phones in their pockets, changing the original language.

"I think the policy is problematic in itself," said Judy Hayes, an OCPS parent. "There’s so many moving parts."

Hayes brought up the issue of allowing students with health issues to use phones for monitoring their conditions.

The board ended up taking her suggestion.

"You have little kids who might have diabetes, and they don’t want to be very public about it, and they should be able to have that dignity to discretely look at their phone to monitor their blood sugar or adjust their hearing aids," Hayes said.

"I’ve heard teachers kind of across the board on the issue, but it seems like the majority of them do believe that cell phones are causing more disruptions in the school environment," said Clinton McCracken, the president of the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association.

McCracken spoke at Tuesday's meeting, hoping to make sure teachers aren't bogged down with enforcing the new rule.

"As long as when that administrator is called, there’s a quick response, and the teacher can get back to teaching in their classroom and as long as that’s consistently enforced," McCracken said.

McCracken said discipline and teacher pay are two of their top concerns.

At Tuesday's meeting, OCPS said it had 450 instructional vacancies.