“Put your phone away!”
The familiar cry of high-school teachers everywhere now has legal backing to it. On May 15, 2024, Ohio Governor Mike Dewine signed House Bill 250 into law. The law mandates every school district in Ohio create a policy for cell phone use among their students. It aims to minimize phone use in students from kindergarten to twelfth grade.
Former state representative Jessica Miranda, a Democrat from Forest Park, and Representative Tracy Richardson, a Republican from Marysville, sponsored the bill. The bill does not outright ban or allow cell phones, it instead requires all districts to emphasize limiting their student’s cell phone use both during the school day and in the classroom. Many schools already have enacted policies that mirror or even follow the new bills, but others will need to revisit and edit theirs to comply. The bill also includes exceptions for any students who rely on their cell phone to monitor health conditions, or for student learning at the discretion of school officials.
Governor Dewine originally called for a measure regarding cell phone use in his “State of the State Address.” In this speech, Dewine addressed the Ohio General Assembly and asked them to formally introduce legislation aimed at minimizing the use of cell phones in schools.
After House Bill 250 was introduced, it was passed unanimously in both the Ohio Senate and House of Representatives. Many Ohio school districts have already implemented the measures outlined in the law, such as Dublin City Schools. There, students are required to completely power off their cell phones unless otherwise instructed. However, all Ohio schools are mandated to adopt their specific cell phone policies no later than July 2025, ahead of the 2025-2026 school year. Additionally, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce plans to create a model policy for the use of cell phones during school hours.
In order to smooth the transition from a cell phone filled day to a day that is distraction-free, schools have turned to a variety of solutions. For example, schools like Dayton Public have begun using Yondr pouches. Yondr pouches lock students’ phones in a magnetic pouch that can only be unlocked by a special key.
While it remains unclear how exactly SHS will integrate the new law into our building, it will undoubtedly include a solution to the amount of screen time that students currently participate in during school hours.
In the end, this bill’s main goal is simply to reduce this in order to create a better, more focused, and more connected learning environment for students–even if it also includes turning off TikTok during math class.
