On September 23, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 3216, the Phone-Free School Act, which requires every school district, charter school, and county office of education to develop a policy limiting the use of smartphones by July 1, 2026. Here’s how the bill will affect Alameda Unified School District (AUSD).
AUSD currently has a phone policy, as stated in Board Policy 5131.8 as well as the Parent Handbook: Students can have cell/smart phones on campus, but they should be turned off during instructional time.
“Nevertheless, over the years, we have seen that students use their mobile devices frequently during the day, and it does indeed distract them from their academics and contribute to emotional and social struggles among our students,” the district noted in a written statement to the Alameda Post. “As such, we welcome the new bill and its focus on improving the experience and outcomes of our students.”
Over the next several months, AUSD will begin to explore possibilities for fine tuning their existing policy “to be sure it complies with the new state law and includes viable, effective enforcement mechanisms,” the statement continued.
Senior Manager of Community Affairs Susan Davis added that some AUSD teachers do take students’ cell phones at the beginning of class and return them at the end. “But that practice is not currently universal,” she said.
Alameda High School parent Yasmin Kniep calls the school’s policy of collecting phones at the beginning of class and returning them at the end “a good compromise.” Encinal parent Jamie Evankovich says the same policy at her teen’s school “appears to be working well from a parent and student perspective.”
Caitlin Kenney is a middle school teacher at Bay Farm School, which implements a similar no-phone policy.
“Being a very small program, we got to designate what to do with phones, and that’s become the rule,” she told the Post. “Students can have phones out during brunch, which is their slightly longer break, and then they can have them out at lunch. But it’s very no-tolerance during school time.”
She added that there is a “discernible difference” between the seventh and eighth graders who do and do not have phones. “It becomes glaringly obvious which students don’t and which do based on their general aptitude for patience,” she said. “Also their kindness toward others. And it doesn’t surprise me anymore.”
That being said, Caitlin is wary of the new bill. She thinks school is an appropriate place for students to learn how to navigate phone technology ethically.
“Teachers are without a doubt expected to prepare students with all the skills they need to be successful,” she said. “And if we’re just pretending like phones don’t exist by having students put their phones in a box, we’re depriving them of the ability to learn how to self-regulate. What I believe should be happening, instead, is developing a strong curriculum of technological ethics and digital citizenship, which is what my mom specializes in. We’re making it the parents’ problem, and many of them won’t have the time or their own personal education on how to teach good habits.”
As a parent of two teenagers within AUSD, Christina Nunez wants access to her children “if a disaster should arise.” She also feels like it should be up to her, not the district, how much communication she is allowed to have with her children when they’re at school.
“Not all children are struggling with unhealthy relationships with screen time,” she told the Post. “Many are, but not all kids. I prefer to parent my own children around this issue. I would prefer the laws not obstruct my ability as a parent to make decisions on my children’s access to their phones.”
Caitlin Kenney’s mother, Diana Kenney, is a high school teacher at Encinal. She has a masters in leadership in educational technology and has taught every grade, preschool through college. She has also taught on the subject of digital citizenship.
Even with Encinal’s current no-phones-in-class policy, Diana calls phone usage at school “detrimental to the mental and physical health of students.” She says phones are the single largest cause of problems on campus in terms of disciplinary actions, including those involving cyberbullying.
AUSD middle school parent Julie Dulay is “so thankful” her children’s school adopted a no-phone policy this year. She says the policy has seemingly increased socialization and cut down on students filming each other, which sometimes results in cyberbullying. “[My children] report to me that there is more socializing at lunch and less staring at phones,” she said. “Also, there’s less videotaping others at lunch and sharing those videos than last year, which was causing all sorts of problems.”
Diana says “a lot of kids are super addicted” to their phones—so much so that they bring two phones to school, one to turn in to the teacher at the start of class and one to hold on to. “They’ve got to get out of class because they just have to go look at their phone. It’s just problematic and disruptive.”
To the parents who want to be able to contact their children via their phones throughout the day, Diana suggests reaching them through the office or getting them a non-smartphone. For parents who track their children’s locations through their phones, Diana suggests using AirTags.
As for the Phone-Free School Act, Diana feels it’s been a long time coming. “It should have happened a long time ago,” she said. “We have been struggling. Schools across this nation have struggled to compete with the distraction that these devices create.”
Kelsey Goeres is the Managing Editor of the Alameda Post. Contact her via [email protected]. Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Kelsey-Goeres.
