DELAWARE- Summer is in full swing, but students will be headed back to the classroom in a short two months. This school year, some Delaware students may not have access to their cell phones for the entire school day.
Delaware ranks 45th in the nation for education, according to a recent report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a national nonprofit organization. The State Department of Education and the General Assembly are looking at ways to improve this ranking and it seems they have identified cell phones as a contributing issue.
This year, nearly $300,000 has been allocated in the state’s one-time spending bill for locking cell phone pouches. These pouches are designed to keep students' phones inaccessible during the school day.
“The students place their phones in a pouch or a secure bag that has a locking device on it and at the end of the day they can retrieve their phone,” explained State Sen. Eric Buckson (R-Dover), a strong supporter of the initiative.
“The districts themselves would apply and it would be on a limited basis, so it wouldn’t be district-wide. It wouldn’t necessarily be multiple schools; it could be a school or a section of a school,” Buckson added.
However, not all parents are on board with the idea. Bobby Wilson expressed concerns about emergency situations. “The kids should have phones in case of an emergency so they can get a hold of somebody—parents, anybody—whether there is something going on in school and they need 911,” Wilson said.
Buckson addressed this concern, stating, “Somehow we functioned in a world that had emergencies without cell phones. We’ll be alright. But if there is an emergency, parents still have cell phones, administrators still have cell phones, teachers can still have them.”
Details on which schools have applied for or plan to implement the program have not yet been disclosed.
