ALEXANDRIA, Va. — To help keep students engaged in classrooms, middle schools in Fairfax County are participating in a pilot program that requires phones be kept away in a storage pouch.
Frost Middle School, Irving Middle School, Jackson Middle School, Poe Middle School, Robinson Middle School, Thoreau Middle School, and Twain Middle School are part of the program starting in the first week of September.
Students will receive an assigned magnetic Yondr pouch that will be placed in their backpacks or a central storage unit in the school.
The goal is to keep children away from social media, texting and phone calls during school hours. Airpods must also be secured in the pouch or placed in backpacks. Smartwatches must also be turned off or on airplane mode.
In case of a family emergency, parents can call the school’s front office.
Twain Middle School parent Jenn Carlson supports the idea but wants her daughter to be exempt due to her physical disability.
“Her safety is compromised if she can’t reach her teacher,” Carlson told WUSA9.
“I absolutely see the benefits to it because there is an attention problem and there is an addiction to cellphone problems,” she added. “I do have a monitoring software on my kids’ cellphones, and I could see they’re on their phones six or seven hours a day in a small or large chunks.”
Fairfax Co. Public Schools Board Member Kyle McDaniel helped push for the superintendent to implement a new plan. He wants the program to extend to high schools.
He anticipates getting data on how the program works by early 2025, which he hopes will illustrate how the enforcement works.
“Teachers are asking for guidance and for help and they want to know what the rules are so we can get on the same page,” he said. “If we're not all on the same page, there's not going to be consistent enforcement.”
The pilot program comes as Gov. Glenn Younkin issued an executive order requiring the education department to implement new cellphone-free guidelines in schools.
Concerns over mental health, bad grades, addiction and safety have amplified.
The officials involved in holding listening sessions in communities are expected to release a draft of the guidelines next week.
“There are some children that need it for specialized reasons but other than that, there's no need for it at all,” FCPS Board Member Marcia St. John-Cunning told WUSA9. “Kids just get hyper focused on their phone and are even isolated from having social relationships.”
To learn more about the pilot program, click here.