A person shields a cellphone with their arm while reading a book. (Photo illustration by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
Platte-Geddes Superintendent Joel Bailey remembers an “eerily quiet” lunch room when his students were still allowed to use their cellphones during the school day.
“We decided that since the kids are in class the majority of the day, they need to talk to one another during lunch. We want that social interaction,” Bailey said. “Albeit, it’s a noisier lunch room now, at least they’re talking and interacting.”
During the 2022-23 school year, the district became one of the first in the state to require all students’ phones to be locked away during school hours. Bailey said the district realized it had been “losing the battle” with students who were making “poor decisions with social media.”
Many other South Dakota school districts have since adopted new cellphone rules, according to a South Dakota Searchlight survey of superintendents and analysis of published policies. As classes begin this fall, nearly all districts in the state have a phone policy or guidelines for students. About 60% of districts do not allow cellphones for at least part of the school day, although in some schools, students can keep the devices in their backpacks or lockers. About one-third of the districts in the state remove or lock away high school students’ cellphones for at least part of the school day.
While some schools lock phones away for the entire day, others require students to place phones in containers during class. Some of those allow students to use their phones during lunch or between class periods.
School districts implementing a locked phone policy for high school students throughout the entire school day this year include De Smet, Dupree, Ethan, Florence, Henry, Iroquois, Oglala Lakota, Rosholt and Waverly. Highmore-Harrold will consider a locked phone policy at its September school board meeting.
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The Dupree School District spent about $300 to purchase clear, locked boxes with slots for high schoolers to place their cell phones during the school day, Superintendent Brent Mareska said. Elementary and middle school students give their cellphones to their first period teacher at the start of the school day, but the devices aren’t placed in locked boxes.
The school tried using a door hanging pouch – such as for shoes or calculators – for high school students last year with access during lunch and between classes, but Mareska said administrators and teachers “didn’t see the results we wanted.”
“It’s never going to be a one-size fits all,” Mareska said. “The goal is to keep improving our kids’ education. With not only staff but most Americans hooked on their cellphones, it’s affecting education more than we know.”
Wall School District implemented a pouch system last year, but purchased new pouches that block cell phone signals to watches or earbuds this year. Students will still be able to use phones between periods and during lunchtime, Superintendent Sally Crowser said.
“Our cellphones are a problem, but I’m not ready for a full ban,” Crowser said.
State legislators, Education Department explore ‘best practices’
South Dakota Department of Education Secretary Joseph Graves told South Dakota Searchlight in an emailed statement that he is “pleased” to see school districts set local policies that meet their needs, adding that research shows smartphones have a “direct impact on student learning and the classroom culture.”
“We will be watching closely as schools develop rules and strategies to combat the negative effects of smartphones,” Graves said.
The state Legislature passed a resolution in February encouraging school boards to implement policies limiting cell phone use during instruction. Twenty-six states have laws or policies banning or limiting cellphones in classrooms.
Lawmakers on South Dakota’s Teacher Compensation Review Board recommended in August that the state Department of Education prepare a report about the “best practices” on smartphones and personal technology in schools. The recommendation passed unanimously.
Graves said during the meeting he interpreted the recommendation as instructing the department to survey school districts on their policies, analyze how other states are crafting policies and identify relevant research on the impact of such technology in schools.
School districts with locked phones continue, adjust practices
In interviews with South Dakota Searchlight, superintendents with experience enforcing locked-away phone policies said student engagement and interaction increased. Teachers didn’t have to spend as much time policing student phone use, either.
Gettysburg Superintendent Amber Mikkelsen surveyed teachers and students at the end of the last school year, after the district’s first year of a locked phone policy. Most teachers who responded thought the change was positive and led to more engagement among students.
Of the one-third of students who responded to the survey, most said the device-free policy helped them focus more in class. Half of students who responded said they felt just as stressed or distracted without their devices, and most students said they didn’t notice a difference in their engagement with other students.
The locked pouches cost the district about $4,400, and they’ve lasted through the second year of use, Mikkelsen said.
Mikkelsen said the district will allow cellphones during lunch for high school students this year, hoping to bring students back to the school lunch program. Students who left for open lunch were allowed to take their phones.
It cost Platte-Geddes $2,000 to purchase 100 new pouches this school year. It has cost the district a couple thousand dollars every few years to purchase new pouches and update equipment, said Bailey, the superintendent.
He hopes students don’t look at the locked-phone policy as a punishment, but as a break from distractions and the world outside the classroom.
“We’re not experts on this. But it’s worked,” Bailey said. “I would not hesitate to make the same decision again.”
Neither district has tracked whether the policies have had an impact on academic success.
Cellphone policies reflect difference in digital education philosophy
The Waverly School District spent about $1,000 purchasing 14 lock boxes for the new school year. Prior to the change, students weren’t allowed to use their cellphones during class periods but could have them in their backpacks or pockets.
Under that policy, students took frequent and lengthy bathroom breaks, said Superintendent Jon Meyer.
But many South Dakota school districts have retained that same cell phone policy for years and plan to keep it in the years to come. While it might be a hassle at times to keep students off their phones, some superintendents say it’s the school’s duty to teach students to be responsible digital users.
Wilmot Superintendent Nicholas Olson said his district strengthened consequences for using cellphones during class, but still allows students to keep their phones on them. The district also stopped letting students take their phones with them for bathroom breaks or other out-of-classroom visits.
“With public schools specifically, a lot of things we do center around preparing students to be contributing members of society,” Olson said. “That’s in a lot of school district mission statements, and we have to uphold that. Digital citizenship is something extremely important and part of that mission, though ever-changing.”
Meyer said he hopes more school districts implement locked phone policies. Schools shouldn’t be solely responsible for teaching healthy digital habits, he said, and younger students shouldn’t be on social media.
The Wilmot district considered a door hanger pouch system, but officials worried that if a student took another’s phone and damaged or destroyed it, the school could be found liable.
“Hopefully next year we can learn and grow,” Olson said, “and make a decision that benefits students and staff in our district.”
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