Skip to main content
School cellphone bans have dominated conversations in state legislatures this year, and Oregon is no exception.
On Wednesday, the Legislature’s House Committee on Education heard public testimony on House Bill 2251, an effort by several legislators to codify a statewide cellphone ban from bell to bell for all students in Oregon. The proposal was generally well received, though a few key school district advocacy organizations sought less restrictive guidance.
The bill has bipartisan sponsorship. Reps. Kim Wallan (R-Medford) and April Dobson (D-Happy Valley) and Sen. Lisa Reynolds (D-West Portland) all testified in support of the strongest version of the bill, which calls for an “off and away all day” approach (a controversial one at districts, including Portland Public Schools, which passed a similar policy in January). All three placed some blame on cellphones for Oregon’s dismal academic outcomes and a worsening youth mental health crisis.
“The evidence is clear that reducing cellphone use during the school day improves academic outcomes, reduces behavioral issues and supports kids’ mental health,” Dobson said at the hearing. “This session, Oregon can join the growing number of states taking action to give kids cellphone-free schools.”
According to an Associated Press tracker in January, nine states had implemented cellphone bans or restrictions in schools, and 39 either had proposals to ban devices or provided policy restrictions. In Oregon, many districts have adopted policies at the local level, though Wallan said others were waiting on the state’s guidance. (The Oregon Department of Education released guidelines to help districts devise their own cellphone policies in October, though it is more lax than what’s being proposed in Salem.)
The hearing drew testimony from school administrators and pediatricians who favored a strong ban.
Ryan Richardson, a school administrator for the North Clackamas School District, said cellphones are designed to be addictive and have shifted the student–educator dynamic in schools. 2012, he says, was when Oregon started losing gains in nationwide testing and coincides directly with the rise in social media. (Oregon is dead last in fourth grade proficiency in reading and mathematics when adjusted for demographics.)
Richardson says the right question to ask in conversations with students is not whether they want their cellphones restricted, but instead to ask about the impact phones are having on their lives. “We have data from our students that tells us half of them talk about its negative impact on their mental health, they talk about it’s a negative impact on their grades.”
“We have enough information, we know what the right thing to do is,” Richardson says. “We have to make this move for them and with them.”
Lobbyists from the Oregon School Boards Association and the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators both testified in support of an amendment to the bill that would give school districts more flexibility. That amendment would require school districts to pass policies supporting cellphone bans during instructional time, but would leave times like passing periods and lunch up to districts.
“A lot of our districts have gone through family engagement, student engagement, staff engagement, and we really don’t want to upend that work if they’ve already put in work to adopt a policy,” says Adrienne Anderson, the government relations counsel at OSBA.
Anderson added the amendment would provide exemptions for emergency circumstances, easing parental anxiety.
Rep. Emerson Levy (D-Bend) said that in the Bend-La Pine School District, the bell-to-bell policy was what had produced positive impacts in student engagement and increased attendance. (Oregon struggles with chronic absenteeism.) She says administrators have seen kids more present in academic and social activities.
“I think it’s hard for some districts with parents that don’t want to implement this policy, and I want to say I really understand that. I’m a very anxious mom,” says Rep. Emerson Levy (D-Bend). “But this policy, I think, at the end of the day, is good for our kids.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story said state Sen. Lisa Reynolds represented Tigard. She represents West Portland. The bill number is also 2251, not 2551. WW regrets the errors.