Back-to-school season in New York this year will mean “detoxing” from your cellphones, Gov. Hochul said Wednesday.
After a roundtable discussion with students, parents, union officials, and the head of the city’s school system, Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, the governor assured reporters that schools are ready to transition to phone-free after New York passed a law to ban the devices for the full school day.
Kids, on the other hand, may not be.
“Change is always hard,” Hochul said at the Walton High School Campus in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx. “It’s been a decade since cellphones have been in schools. So it’s gonna be hard on the students. We have to prepare the parents for really looking at [a] ‘detoxing period’ for them.”
“My advice to parents is like I used to do with my kids,” she added. “They’re up until 9:30, 10 in the summertime. They’re going to bed at 8 o’clock in September. So, you start weaning them in bed earlier. I’m suggesting the same for parents to help prepare your children for this.”
“But as far as the school districts being prepared, I feel very confident that enormous work has gone in.”
Under the new law, school districts are facing an Aug. 1 deadline to finalize and publish a policy that separates students from their phones while on school grounds, including during lunch and study halls. The Panel for Educational Policy — functionally the city’s school board, except most members are appointed by the mayor — will vote on the revised rules next Wednesday.
Then it’ll be up to schools to implement the policy, which requires that phones be turned off and stored in a way chosen by their principals.
Over half of city schools already collect cellphones or restrict them in some manner, according to data shared by the chancellor on Wednesday. The school system is also conducting a “readiness” survey — to which hundreds of principals have responded so far — and working with schools on implantation plans based on their sizes and current practices, she said.
Some schools may still have a long way to go until they’re ready for September.
In New York City, about $4 million of the state’s $13.5 million investment will go toward local schools, officials announced Wednesday. Another $25 million has been earmarked by the city to help principals implement the ban.
Mark Rampersant, who oversees school safety and climate initiatives for the system, told the Daily News schools recently received information about the available funding, which can be used for any of the costs associated with implementing the new policies. He expected requests were coming “shortly.”
Questions also remain about who will be exempt from the school cellphone ban and how students who leave campus during the school day can access their devices. The proposed citywide policy requires schools to provide exemptions for students who need the phone for their health, disability, or caregiving responsibilities if approved by a school counselor. But pressed by The News, education officials shared few details.
“We’re collecting feedback,” said Aviles-Ramos. “The law is very clear there has to be an exception process, but we are working with families and with teachers and with administrators.”
But one thing is for certain — the new prohibitions are coming.
“This is happening,” the chancellor said, “and if we slowly trickle it into the school year, what ends up happening is we miss the moment. Habits are built from day one, and so we are going to be ready on day one.”
