COLUMBIA — Students in South Carolina public schools might have to put away their cellphones when they get back to campus in August.
Budget bills already passed by the state Senate and House of Representatives both include a provision that would require districts to adopt a policy stopping students from using unauthorized electronic devices during school hours.
The effort to restrict student cellphone usage stems from concerns from education experts and policymakers about the negative impact the devices can have on students.
A 2016 study found students’ performance on high-stakes exams “significantly increases” after cellphone bans are implemented, equivalent to an extra hour of school each week or increasing the school year by five days.
Phones and other electronic devices also have an impact on students’ well-being — a 2023 review found that “excessive screen time in adolescents seems associated with mental health problems,” and several Palmetto State school districts have already filed a federal lawsuit against social media giants alleging that their online platforms have harmed students’ mental health.
State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver has thrown her support behind the measure, writing in an op-ed for The Post and Courier that stopping students from using their phones in class would be the “most practical step we could take to refocus student learning, address student mental health needs, increase school safety and help teachers enforce classroom discipline.”
South Carolina wouldn’t be alone — Florida lawmakers passed a similar law prohibiting unapproved phone usage during instructional time in 2023, the same year the British government announced a ban on student cellphone use during the entire school day.
The two chambers of the General Assembly included different versions of the provision in their respective budgets, which will have to be sorted out alongside other differences in a conference committee before a final budget gets sent back to each side of the Statehouse and eventually to Gov. Henry McMaster’s desk.
The policy mandate is in what’s called a “proviso,” which places requirements on how the money appropriated in the rest of the budget can actually be used. They only last for the year in which that budget is in effect but are often carried forward into the next year’s spending bill.
In the House version of the proviso, identical to one included in McMaster’s proposed budget, a district’s policy would prohibit students from using phones or other devices during “direct classroom instructional time.” The Senate version would fully prohibit students from accessing the devices during the school day, and first route the policy through the state Board of Education.
Some questioned whether students should be able to access their phones in case of an emergency.
“I do think we need to restrict the use of them,” state Sen. Kevin Johnson, D-Manning, said during an April subcommittee meeting. “I just hope they’re not going to ban students from having a cellphone on them, but we’ll see what they come up with,” he said of the state board.
A state-level mandate could help teachers in their efforts to stop students from using phones in their classrooms, said Patrick Kelly, director of governmental affairs for the Palmetto State Teachers Association.
Educators currently rely on administrators and school boards to back them in those efforts, he said, but Legislature could force their hand in implementing district-level prohibitions — throwing the state’s weight behind teachers looking to “maintain the most conducive learning environment possible.”
“The research is clear, the experience of teachers are clear. Cellphones have become an undue distraction on student focus and attention in class, and removing those from the equations is going to help us get our students to their full academic potential,” Kelly said.
The two provisos passed by the House and Senate don’t specify exact wordings or enforcement mechanisms for the policies they would require districts to adopt, leaving the door open for administrators and school boards in different districts to take different approaches, depending on which version of the proviso becomes law.
Many districts already have prohibitions in place.
Across the United States, about 77 percent of schools prohibited the nonacademic use of cellphones during the 2019-20 school year, the latest from which federal data is available. School districts in South Carolina also have policies in place governing how students can use their phones on campus, with some already banning or limiting their usage during class — though the details and enforcement of those policies vary.
Students in the Charleston County School District can only use their phones in class when directed by their teacher, and during other times in the school day, such as lunch, depending on their grade.
The 50,400-student district has brought about 4,700 disciplinary actions for electronic device infractions through the end of April in the 2023-24 school year. It classifies such infractions as “teacher managed referral” in its student code of conduct, similar to a hall pass violation, spokesman Andy Pruitt said.
In Richland Two, which serves about 28,000 students near Columbia, elementary and middle schoolers can’t use their phones during the school day at all, and high schoolers only during lunch in certain principal-approved “free zones” and with teacher approval.
Students there amassed 430 disciplinary actions under that electronic device policy through April 25 this school year. Consequences for those violations could range from the phone being confiscated to a warning and parent contact, or even suspension, depending on how the device was actually used, according to a statement from the district.
