Boulder Valley schools report benefits, hurdles of strict cell phone policies

Amy Bounds, Colorado Hometown Weekly

As Colorado school districts adopt stricter cell phone policies, Boulder Valley leaders say they’re seeing more connection and fewer distractions after a year-and-a-half of nixing cell phone use during school hours.

But, district leaders acknowledged, enforcement at the large, comprehensive high schools remains challenging.

“Our biggest schools are harder to manage,” school board President Nicole Rajpal said. “Those schools are very complex. There’s not grown ups everywhere. There are a lot of places to be without supervision. But in their own ways and on their slightly delayed timelines, our big comprehensive high schools are trying to engage and move the needle, even if they haven’t been as quick to change.”

The Boulder Valley school board agreed to a “bell-to-bell” ban on cell phone use at its high schools in November 2024, with the new policy going into effect after winter break in January 2025. Since then, a new state law was passed that requires every K-12 school district to create a cell phone policy by July 1.

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