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On Tuesday, July 9, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued Executive Order 33, looking to guarantee a “cell phone-free education” to students. It doesn’t order an outright ban on phones or demand that any certain protocols be followed. Instead, he’s calling for communities to get involved and help design the rules they want to see. 

“This essential action will promote a healthier and more focused educational environment where every child is free to learn. Creating cell phone and social media-free educational environments in Virginia’s K-12 education system will benefit students, parents, and educators,” Youngkin said in a statement. “Today’s Executive Order both establishes the clear goal to protect the health and safety of our students by limiting the amount of time they are exposed to addictive cell phones and social media and eliminates clear distractions in the classroom.”

Youngkin detailed how this is supposed to move forward in a series of eight steps, directives that school districts and the Virginia Department of Education are required to follow. There are specific deadlines to meet within the next six months, so that the project can’t drag on. In the end, the goal is to have functional policies in place for the entire Commonwealth, ready to use by Fall 2025. 

Why do ‘phone-free’ now? 

The argument from Youngkin and multiple other politicians has been that cell phones are a distraction in the classroom. More than that, the administration and others point to studies that question if cell phone use in school contributes to lower test scores. 

A 2023 study by the Fordham Institute seems to back up that argument, stating that increased phone use in classes contributed to the decline seen in test scores even before the pandemic. 

“We see smartphone ownership really taking off among adolescents in middle and high school around 2013,” the Fordham report states. “That’s also when median achievement on the eighth-grade math test in the National Assessment on Educational Progress (NAEP) peaked. It’s fallen modestly ever since.” 

Research by the nonpartisan U.S. think tank The Conversation seemed to back that up. They compared schools that had cell phones removed with others that allow cell use.

“We found banning mobile phones at school leads to an increase in student performance,” the 2022 report states. “Our results suggest that after schools banned mobile phones, test scores of students aged 16 increased by 6.4% of a standard deviation. This is equivalent to adding five days to the school year or an additional hour a week.” 

One of the biggest research projects on the subject was done in Norway, by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. More than 100 middle schools were included in the study released earlier this year, with a portion given free reign with cell phones and the rest dealing with a full ban. 

The schools with a ban on cell phones saw both an increase in average GPA and reduced bullying. There were also significantly fewer doctor visits detailing mental illness for those schools and administrators reported better attendance. As for the ones where cell phone use was allowed? There were no such changes. 

How is it on the local level? 

The problems described are similar to those we’ve heard detailed in school districts around this region. 

In Prince Edward County, for example, back in December, the school board heard examples of cell phones being used for bullying and intimidation, posting images meant to harass other students and texting during class. 

What board members also heard during that December meeting is students in the middle and high school bring their phones on a regular basis, refusing to give them up to teachers when asked. Instead, some students keep their phones, using them to disrupt class or taking them when on a bathroom break to post things to social media once outside of class. 

Since then, the school board has been discussing either a potential ban on cell phones in the building or requiring that they be turned over once students step on the premises, as potential options for change. Neither of those have been voted on. 

But it’s not as simple as issuing an order and poof, problem solved. There are challenges involved with making a “cell phone-free education” happen. 

One of the challenges raised, both in Prince Edward and in other districts, deals with parents. Some parents are also not supportive, when contacted about taking phones away from students. Some families have students keep cell phones with them to communicate about how they’re getting picked up from school or if they need to ride the bus. Other families have seen the mass shootings and other issues across the nation on tv and want their children to keep a cell phone on hand in case of an emergency.

And beyond the parent issue, there’s also the question of money. One plan used by several districts involves students being given a pouch, one that could fit in a backpack or purse. The phone goes in the pouch, which automatically locks when a student enters a classroom. Then it releases as soon as he or she leaves class. The problem? These aren’t cheap. 

“There’s always a cost associated with that, so we have not discussed (anything similar),” said Cumberland County Superintendent Chip Jones. 

Cumberland, like many rural districts, struggles to get enough funding to buy specialized equipment like that. County supervisors had to raise the property tax rate this year, in order to meet the school district’s immediate needs, among other things. 

The state, at least currently, would only be offering limited help with funding the project. In Youngkin’s order, $500,000 total is set aside to support implementing the new policies. That’s $500,000 to be split across all 100+ school districts in Virginia. 

What does the order say? 

So we’ve talked about the challenges involved and the impact cell phones have in class. But what does the order actually call for? Let’s walk through the eight steps. 

First, the order calls for listening sessions to be held in each region. Dr. Chip Jones, who chairs the Region 8 Superintendents’ Group, says this area’s listening tour would likely be held within the month, somewhere in Farmville.  

Second, Youngkin wants the term “cell phone-free education” defined. What does that mean? What does a cell free school look like? What is the end goal that’s being aimed for? Third and fourth, the governor wants the Virginia Department of Education to take everything from the listening sessions and develop a rough draft of both the model policy and guidance for how school districts will put it together. Fifth, for those parents who want to communicate with their children in case of emergency, etc., then there should be a way students can still check their phones if need be. 

Now we get into the deadlines. All school districts must adapt the recommendations provided by the state and design their own cell phone-free education plan, which will be finished by Jan. 1, 2025. Finally, in directives 7 and 8, Youngkin orders that data from these adaptions be reviewed on a regular basis, to make changes as necessary. 

Jones said that to go through all this, and finish it within six months, districts will have their hands full. 

“I’ll need to read it again and see what it means for Cumberland County Public Schools,” Jones said. “I’ll look at the changes that need to be made and so forth.It’ll be a change for some districts and not so much for others. We’ll see how this is going to look for Cumberland.”