The Virginia Department of Education is asking local school divisions across the commonwealth to submit existing policies on cell-phone-usage among students, if the district has one.
It was a “kindly request,” state school officials said, but probably is better seen as a directive. The commonwealth’s 131 school divisions are asked to have policies submitted by July 23, or to inform state officials that a policy does not yet exist.
The request, sent to superintendents July 17, aims at providing state education officials with more information in the wake of Gov. Youngkin’s recent executive order directing that a statewide policy on student phone usage be developed by the end of the year.
“Your prompt response will greatly assist us in compiling accurate data,” state education officials told their local counterparts.
Under Youngkin’s executive order, it appears that the final proposal crafted at the state level will serve as the minimum requirement for local districts to restrict phone usage among students during the class day. Individual school districts would be permitted to go further in restrictions.
