Cell Phone Policy

Student Cell Phone and Smartwatch Policy

During the school day, when the student is on campus, all cell phones and phone watches must be silenced and remain out of sight unless there is a medical plan on file.

Students are not allowed to use their phones once they enter through the gate before school begins. While cell phones are recognized as a safety precaution for parents and children before and after school, cell phones and other personal electronic items may not disrupt the educational program, school activities or violate the rights of others.

Once the campus is open at 7:45 am, students must turn off and store devices in their backpack before entering campus. They may not remain in front of school on their phone.

During the school day and anywhere on campus, all cell phones must be off and remain out of sight. This includes lunch and recess. Phones should remain off and stored away until they exit the campus at the end of the day. This includes iPhone watches as well.

Please continue to enforce parental controls on your child's phone and monitor their device. There have been many reports of inappropriate posts and misuse of phones after school hours and over the weekend that are directly impacting the learning environment.

Vacaville Unified School District Board Policy - Instruction BP 6116
CLASSROOM INTERRUPTIONS
The Board of Education recognizes that class time should be dedicated to student learning. The Board believes that classroom interruptions which are not related to the educational program should be kept at an absolute minimum. The Superintendent or designee shall establish administrative regulations to govern classroom interruptions.

Legal Reference: EDUCATION CODE 32212 Classroom interruptions

If a school employee finds it necessary to confiscate an electronic device, the item will be secured and recorded in the Confiscated Item Log in the office.

Cell phone violation consequences:

1st violation- warning & confiscation, return to student at the end of the day.
2nd violation- confiscation & parent pick up.
3rd violation- confiscation, parent pick up and administrative detention.
4th violation- confiscation, parent pick up and behavior contract.

Navigating Social Media and Cell Phone Use for Our Students

In recent years, the majority of our student conflicts originated from unsupervised cell phone use, group chats, and social media postings ranging from students in 2nd grade all the way to 6th. Ghavinn Crutcher, our Mental Health Clinician, shared videos and information with our community regarding the correlation of anxiety, stress, and social media access for our students. Many of these students own at least one social media account and participate in group chats. In both cases, students were unaware of the inability to delete what they post from other's phones and the adverse impact of sharing personal/appropriate information in these settings.

Most of the conflicts originated out of school, but almost always ended up at school interrupting the learning environment and the positive relationships of students. Students were posting pictures online on social media pages and even creating pages under a students name often without permission from the other students. When these pictures and posts are discovered by students, conflict naturally ensued and arguments happened at school. While working to resolve these conflicts, we discovered that parent controls are not being used.

We highly recommend parent controls on cell phones. The students with parent controls on their phones generally didn't engage in any conflicts compared to other students without parent controls on their cell phones. One of the most important parent control is setting a bedtime for Smartphones so students can get a good night's sleep. We find that students are on social media and chatting to one another into the late hours of the night. The most important part of this message is student safety. Students with an unmonitored Smartphone have access to everything on the internet and anyone on the internet has access to your student.

Below are several articles for parents. We hope you find them helpful. Let's keep our students safe and minimize their distractions while learning at school.

4 Conversations to Have About Screen Time Habits

Parents' Ultimate Guide to Instagram

11 Social Media Red Flag Parents Should Know About

How to Help Teens Manage the Effects of Social Media

Practical Tips for Easing Kids Social Media Anxiety

Parents' Ultimate Guide to Tik Tok

Parents Ultimate Guide to Parental Controls

Help Kids Navigate Viral Social Media Stunts