EVANSVILLE — Never enthusiastic about Indiana’s tough new bell-to-bell ban on cellphones in schools and likely anticipating fierce resistance, the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. is looking for ways to mitigate its effects.
School board member Chris Kiefer asked EVSC attorney Pat Shoulders during Monday’s board meeting what would happen if the corporation simply disregarded the new law, which takes effect July 1.
Nothing good, Shoulders replied.
The new statute bans wireless communication devices for the entire school day, not just classroom time. It passed by lopsided margins in both houses of the Indiana General Assembly in February, although Rep. Wendy McNamara — an EVSC employee — voted no. So did Sen. Vaneta Becker, who said afterward that EVSC Superintendent Darla Hoover told her she was satisfied with a state law passed in 2024 banning portable wireless devices from being used during instructional time.
Hoover told the school board Monday that EVSC is “investigating other options so that the same capabilities that you have by text, you could have on devices that we have in students’ hands.”
“The angst that’s around this is about knowing that you can reach out to your student when you need to, quickly,” Hoover said. “We’ve become really accustomed to being able to send a message right now, everybody sees it, so we’re looking at ways for that to work that would be outside of cellphone usage.”
EVSC spokesman Jason Woebkenberg said after the school board’s meeting that Hoover was talking about school-issued devices EVSC already provides each student for instructional purposes, such as laptops and iPads. The question, Woebkenberg said, is whether such devices can comport with the statute the Legislature overwhelmingly passed and Gov. Mike Braun signed.
“Is there a way that perhaps families can communicate with their child where children, the students, can’t communicate with one another?” the EVSC spokesman said. “Because then that would follow the statute — but it would still bridge that gap and allow families to feel more confident that if they had to get a hold of their student, they could.
“We don’t want people to get confused and think all of a sudden technology is out. We understand technology is extremely important, so students will continue to use that. That is a school-issued device.”
Hoover told the Courier & Press she is discussing the idea with superintendents in other school districts in Indiana.
“What I think about the law is, it isn’t really trying to stop parents from texting their kids in the event of an emergency,” the superintendent said. “It’s more of saying, ‘We want kids paying attention during instruction.’ So I think if we can figure out a way that parents can have quick access in those situations when they need it, then I think we should do that.”
School board members, four of whom will face re-election campaigns this year, welcomed Hoover’s message.
“’Awesome,” David Hollingsworth said. “Looking forward to hearing that.”
‘What if we decided to not follow the state law?’
Near the end of a roughly 15-minute discussion, Kiefer — one of the board members who faces re-election — asked attorney Shoulders an unusual question.
“What if we decided to not follow the state law?” Kiefer asked, noting that that he had heard people say they don’t intend to comply with it.
“I mean, what are the consequences?” Kiefer asked.
“You’d put yourself at risk of sanctions from the Department of Education and funding threats and all kinds of things,” Shoulders replied. “It’s the same thing that any citizen faces when they say, ‘It’s just a law. I’m not going to follow it.'”
Lockers? Bookbags? Answers are coming.
Braun has said the new statute “supports teachers in the classroom and helps students build better habits at a time when constant distraction is affecting learning and mental health, with common-sense exceptions for emergencies.”
Among its other exceptions, the ban does not apply to students whose device use is included in their Individualized Education Programs or 504 disability plans, is medically necessary or necessary for language translation when no school-managed device is available.
There are two ways school districts can handle this policy-wise. The new law allows districts to require devices to be powered off, stored away and inaccessible — or to forbid the devices from being brought to school altogether.
But most of the details for EVSC await further guidance from the Indiana Department of Education and whatever Hoover can determine while talking to other superintendents.
The school board on Monday passed a new policy to comport with the state statute, which it had to do by July 1. August, when school starts, is the real deadline.
The new EVSC policy reiterates the components of the state law, stating that “devices brought to school must be powered off, stored away, and inaccessible to a student throughout the school day.”
But it doesn’t say whether that means putting them in lockers or pouches or bookbags. EVSC has time to decide on those details. And questions.
“I think there’s a lot of conversation throughout the state about what ‘inaccessible’ means,” corporation Chief of Staff Rick Cameron told the school board.
Cameron did say pouches are off the table. “Being liable for everybody’s devices,” he called it.
“The lockers are an option that are being considered, but it’s not the only option — but I don’t think we’re considering mass taking everybody’s devices, storing them away ourselves and then giving them back at the end of the day,” Cameron said.
EVSC could allow students to put their devices in bookbags that could be brought into classrooms — but teachers have warned that would put the burden of enforcing an unpopular law on educators and administrators who would be outnumbered and overwhelmed.
Evansville Teachers Association President Lori Young recently acknowledged that many students were openly disobeying the 2024 law passed that forbade the use of portable wireless devices during instructional time.
A teacher told the Courier & Press that EVSC’s decision not to demand that students put their devices in inaccessible lockers makes it easier for them to disregard the 2024 law — something they likely also will try to do in passing periods and during lunchtime after the tougher new law takes effect on July 1.
The teacher said some students do obey the current law. But for many of the teenagers, a state statute has little meaning.
The school board meets again on June 22.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: EVSC is looking for ways to soften the impact of state devices ban
Reporting by Thomas B. Langhorne, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Thomas B. Langhorne, Evansville Courier & Press | USA TODAY Network
