State Capitol Week in Review

LITTLE ROCK — As the 2024-2025 school year begins, the state Education Department is making grants available to Arkansas school districts to help implement cell phone restrictions in the classroom.
Prohibiting or restricting cell phone use by students is complex, because they can be necessary for learning and doing research.
However, recent studies clearly indicate that the mental health of some young people can be adversely affected by the amount of time they spend every day watching a screen. Rather than socializing face-to-face with fellow students and teachers, they are immersed in social media. They can be more vulnerable to bullying, and their self-confidence can be fragile.
In early July the governor and the Education Secretary announced that the state would make grants available to local schools to alleviate the unfolding crisis of “youth depression, anxiety and isolation” caused by excessive cell phone use among juveniles.
The grants can be used to pay for mental health services, via telehealth technology. It also is being used for secure pouches in which students lock away their cell phones during the day. Each pouch costs about $30. Teachers and other school personnel will have special magnets that unlock them.
According to a spokesman for the Education Department, more than 200 Arkansas school districts are interested in taking advantage of the grant program. Many schools already had policies limiting students’ use of cell phones for non-academic activities.
The enrollment in Arkansas schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade is about 475,000. In the upcoming school year an estimated 200,000 students will be in pilot programs that limit cell phone access during the day.

Accurately measuring results will be a key component of the policy to restrict cell phone, and that takes time. There are studies, and plenty of anecdotal evidence, indicating that students improve their academics if they’re more engaged with their teacher and fellow students.
However, in order to fully measure any benefits from restricting cell phones, it will take at least one full school year and probably more to compile changes in test scores. The effect on students’ mental health is even more difficult to accurately gauge.
Therefore, the pilot program includes an ongoing survey by the Office of Education Policy at the University of Arkansas to examine how restrictions on cell phones affect the mental health of students. The theory is that limiting young people’s exposure to social media will improve their mental health.
School districts that have already limited cell phones in classrooms report positive results, not just in academics but also in student behavior. Some school districts will begin by limiting cell phones in middle schools because that is when many students get their first devices, and begin forming online habits.
School Lunches
School districts implement a policy every year for collecting money from students for lunches and snacks. It is not as simple as it may appear at first glance because some students get behind in their payments, and schools must continue to provide them with the same meals that all students get.
Schools may not stigmatize students who are behind in payments, such as by making them wear wrist bands. School nutrition policies must comply with Act 428 of 2019, the Hunger-Free Students’ Bill of Rights Act.