USED Resource: Call for States, Districts, and Schools to Adopt Policies for Student Use of Cell Phones and Personal Devices

The U.S. Department of Education is calling on every state, district, and school to adopt policies that guide the use of student personal devices in schools, and is issuing a new resource, Planning Together: A Playbook for Student Personal Device Policies, which offers a model process that education leaders can use to design policies for use of cell phones and other personal devices in schools alongside educators, students, parents, and caregivers. It provides a set of step-by-step practices for building shared understanding of the needs and concerns surrounding cell phones in a school community, and recommendations for addressing them through clear and consistent policies.

This resource was developed in response to the May 2023 White House Fact Sheet announcing actions to protect youth mental health, safety, and privacy online as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to address the mental health needs of young people. The process outlined in this playbook helps to ensure that new personal device policies are informed by the perspectives, experiences, and needs, and of educators, students, parents, and other members of the community – a key recommendation from researchers and practitioners.