Cell phone policy

This past June, the Minister of Education released a ministerial order restricting the use of personal digital devices (e.g. cell phones) in classrooms, and directed school divisions to develop and implement policies to enforce this by January 1, 2025. 

We have begun work on the division policy, which will include the following: 

• K-6 students will be encouraged to leave their personal digital devices at home.
• Should a student at any grade choose to bring their device to school it must remain on silent mode and out of sight for the entire day.
• Confiscation, restriction and/or prohibition of personal devices may extend to:
• students and staff;
• Instructional and non-instructional time;
• time students are being transported;
• time staff are working; and/or
• specific locations in the building or on school property.
• Schools will take into consideration the school’s student demographic (age, developmental stage, etc) when creating site policy.

Many of our schools already have practices in place limiting cell phone use during the day, which will remain in place until our division policy has been developed. Please contact your child’s school if you have any questions about their current practices. 

As we work on the division policy, we invite parents/guardians to provide input through our policy  engagement session on Thursday, September 26 at 6 pm. Register here. Please note we have room for 45 participants. If you are unable to attend the session, and wish to provide input, please email paul.macleod@spschools.org. 

More information on cell phones in classrooms is available here.