Katy ISD will consider revising cell phone and bus policies for the 2024-25 school year

Katy ISD students may have different policies regarding cell phone use and bus riding for the 2024-25 school year, as district officials presented revisions to the student code of conduct 2024-25 at the July 17 board work study meeting.

What is happening?

While KISD junior high students were allowed to access cell phones in the initial proposal made at the April 22 board meeting, the revised changes indicate they will no longer be allowed to use their cell phone between classes. However, the proposal says they will be able to access it during lunch, depending on decisions made by campus leadership teams.

The initial proposal made at the April 22 board meeting also included the following new policies for elementary schools:

• All cell phones must be stored in students’ backpacks and turned off during class.
• Any student who violates the cell phone policy is subject to disciplinary action.
• All classrooms will display the 2024-2025 Cell Phones in the Classroom Guidelines for reference.

High school students will only be allowed to access cell phones outside of school hours, per campus rules, according to district documents.

If students use their cell phones at prohibited times, or if younger students use their cell phones, they will be confiscated, according to district documents.

Students in kindergarten through first grade are not permitted to use their cell phones during instructional time, while traveling to or from school on district transportation, during private lessons, or in detention, or when participating in school-sponsored extracurricular activities, according to district documents.

Elementary students, second through fifth grade, are allowed to have a cell phone, but it must be turned off and invisible during the school day, according to district documents.

What they said

“I think (the new policy) benefits our campus and our families,” said board member Morgan Calhoun. “Obviously we can’t tell our families what to do with their children when they are at home, but what we do know is that cell phones are directly harmful and are having an alarming impact on our young people.

More than 53% of children own a smartphone by age 11, according to a 2022 study by the National Institutes of Health. Additionally, a 2023 study by children’s research and advocacy organization Common Sense Media found that teens pick up their phones two to 498 times per day.

Other board members also believe a stricter cell phone policy will benefit the district, especially since similar cell phone policies have already been implemented for KISD .

“There are certainly many high schools that have already been successful for years,” board secretary Mary Cuzela said. “It has been done – some more rigorously – and they have done it quite well, and the principals are very happy with it. This is not new for all schools.

What else?

Students who ride the bus may also have to scan their student ID when loading and unloading the bus, according to district documents.

Other proposed policies of note regarding bus riding include that students cannot sit on the floor of the bus and that students are not allowed to cross the roadway behind the bus, according to district documents.

Stay tuned

District officials are still revising the student code of conduct for the 2024-25 school year. It was not specified when the council will consider adopting the code.