Students in School District 72 will get their first taste of the new cellphone and other digital device restrictions on Sep. 3 and 4 after school starts again.
The new digital device policy and operational procedure was rung out on July 1 due to the Ministry of Education and Child Care's mandates for school districts around the province.
The policies address when students can use cell phones at school. The policies vary between age groups.
"What the ministry's aim and goal was, is to create more structured learning time in schools and reduce the amount of distractions that were happening in our schools, certainly at the secondary and middle school level, but maybe even a little bit sometimes at [the] elementary [level]," said Superintendent Geoff Manning during the school board meeting on June 18. "So the guiding principle of this operational procedure is really to make instructional time instructional time."
RELATED: New digital device policy for School District 72 comes into play on July 1
Elementary school students will not be allowed mobile phones at all unless given permission from their teacher or a school principal/vice-principal. Middle school students can bring them to school but are to keep them in their locker. They are not allowed to use them during lunch or recess. Secondary students are allowed to use their phones during breaks and lunchtimes but are not allowed them during class unless directed to by a teacher for instruction.
Health and medical needs have been taken into account by district staff while creating this policy. Students with these needs will have access to phones if they need them for those purposes.
Phones and other digital devices can be used during instruction time, but only with the supervision of a teacher.
RELATED: No cell phone bans for School District 72, but there will be boundaries
SD72 has also left individual schools to make their own codes of conduct for infractions of the new policy.
The district sent letters to parents outlining the new policy.
