NEW YORK (WABC) — Students returning back to school in New York this year will be without phones under a new statewide ban.
The ban requires students from kindergarten through 12th grade to disconnect from electronics while on school grounds. Students will still be able to use school-issued devices such as laptops and Chromebooks.
Yonkers is the third largest school district in the state with 24,000 students, and like many schools, they are rolling out the statewide bell-to-bell cellphone ban.
Along with reading, writing and arithmetic, security is also top of mind.
“We have been running drills every day for the past week, just making sure that we get our police department or police officers into the school as quick as we possibly can,” said Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano.
But one of the biggest changes this year is the bell-to-bell cellphone ban.
On Wednesday morning, all 1,100 students at Roosevelt High School were issued Yondr pouches.
In Yonkers, the cases are personalized to allow students to keep their devices with them, but under a locked seal until they are de-magnetized at the end of the day.
“The hope is that we can preserve teaching and learning and get back to where we were, we want kids interacting with each other, we want kids interacting with their teachers in class, we want less disruptions, ultimately that’s the goal,” said Yonkers Superintendent Anibal Soler.
New York City school students return to the classroom on Thursday and will also have to adjust to the new phone ban.
Phil Taitt has the latest details.
Mark Rampersant, security director for the NYC Department of Education, explained how communication will work in real time.
“Expectation is clear for all of our schools. The schools have to provide the parents with a working number that they can call – and get a live person who can get a message to the child, who can bring the child to the phone to call mom back. But as it relates to respective emergencies, every one of our schools is going to send out text messages or emails in real time apprising the families of whatever the emergency is,” Rampersant said.
There will be exemptions for educational purposes, medical conditions and emergencies.
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