NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A9687
SPONSOR: Brown K TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to prohibiting students
from possessing cellphones during classroom instruction
PURPOSE:
Requires that students be prohibited from possessing cellphones during
classroom instruction.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1: Paragraph a of subdivision 2 of section 2801 of the education
law, as amended by chapter 380 of the laws of 2001, is amended as
follows to include: and provisions prohibiting students from possessing
cellphones during classroom instruction.
Section 2: Identifies effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
A 2023 report from UNESCO, the education arm of the United Nations,
raised auestions about the use of smartphones in schools. Though smart-
phones can be used for educational purposes, the report indicates that
devices also disrupt classroom learning, expose students to cyberbully-
ing and can compromise students' privacy.
About 1 in 7 countries globally, such as the Netherlands and France,
have banned the use of smartphones in school - and academic performance
improved as a result, particularly for low-performing students, the
report says.
Further, PISA, the Program for International Student Assessment,
conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
in almost 80 countries, tests 15-year-olds every three years in math,
reading, and science. PISA scores reveal that students who spend less
than one hour of "leisure" time on digital devices a day at school
scored about 50 points higher in math than students whose usage is
greater than five hours a day. This gap held even after adjusting for
socioeconomic factors. For comparison, a 50-point decline in math
scores is about four times larger than America's pandemic-era learning
loss in that subject.
Phones seem to create a general distraction throughout school, even for
students who aren't always looking at them. Andreas Schleicher, the
director of the PISA survey, wrote that students who reported feeling
distracted by their classmates' digital habits scored lower in math.
Nearly half of students across the OECD said that they felt "nervous" or
"anxious" when they didn't have their digital devices near them.
Although school cell phone policies can vary significantly, 97% of 11-
to 17year-olds used their phones during the school day, according to a
Common Sense Media study analyzing the smartphone data of 200 students.
The amount of daily in-school screen time ranged from less than a minute
to 6 1/2 hours with a median time of 43 minutes. Students were-most
likely to turn to social media (32%), YouTube (26%) and gaming (17%) on
their cell phones during the school day. Among the social media apps
used by teens, TikTok prevailed as the most popular and longest-used
app, the study said.
Research appears to overwhelmingly support the notion that students who
spend more time on their phones do worse in school, distract other
students around them, and feel worse about their life.
This bill will help to eliminate this phone usage problem by requiring
that students be prohibited from possessing cellphones during classroom
instruction. This in turn will help alleviate the learning difficulties
faced by students due to cell phone usage during the school day.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding the date
on which it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addi-
tion, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for
the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized to
be made and completed on or before such effective date.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
9687
IN ASSEMBLY
April 3, 2024
___________
Introduced by M. of A. K. BROWN -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to prohibiting students
from possessing cellphones during classroom instruction
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph a of subdivision 2 of section 2801 of the educa-
2 tion law, as amended by chapter 380 of the laws of 2001, is amended to
3 read as follows:
4 a. provisions regarding conduct, dress and language deemed appropriate
5 and acceptable on school property, including a school function, and
6 conduct, dress and language deemed unacceptable and inappropriate on
7 school property, including a school function, and provisions regarding
8 acceptable civil and respectful treatment of teachers, school adminis-
9 trators, other school personnel, students and visitors on school proper-
10 ty, including a school function, including the appropriate range of
11 disciplinary measures which may be imposed for violation of such code,
12 and the roles of teachers, administrators, other school personnel, the
13 board of education and parents, and provisions prohibiting students from
14 possessing cellphones during classroom instruction;
15 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding
16 the date on which it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the
17 addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary
18 for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized
19 to be made and completed on or before such effective date.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11824-02-3
