Williamson County Schools Places New Restrictions on Student Cell Phones

Stock image of an iPhone (Photo by Unsplash)

Williamson County School Board members voted 10 to 2 Monday night to further reduce students’ access to their cell phones.

Board members approved a new policy that requires the district to “develop a procedure by which students’ wireless communication devices can be securely stored during the school day” for the 2026-27 school year. The policy will also allow high school students to access their phones during lunch.

The policy is a departure from the district’s existing rules adopted in June, which require students to silence devices during instructional time and allow high school students limited use at lunch.

New Policy Debated

The policy board members approved is an amended version of a proposal District 9 Board Member Claire Reeves proposed in October that would have removed access to phones completely for students at school.

Claire Reeves showing a pouch students might be required to store their phones in (screengrab)

Reeves said the board received feedback supporting students' access to their phones at lunch, and she suggested the district might allow students to carry their phones in a special pouch that could be stored in a backpack during the day, which blocks texts and cellphone signals.

“There’s lots of different solutions out there and I believe that we should give the district some time to figure out what that might look like to pilot it in a few schools if they wanted to,” said Reeves.

The vote in favor of the new policy followed a lengthy discussion and multiple tweaks to its language.

“I think this is a real compromise. It still allows them to have their lunch time, and you know, just converse one-on-one,” said board member Dan Cash.

District 10 Board Member Eric Welch questioned whether allowing special pouches for students’ phones, as Reeves suggested, would create enforcement challenges if those pouches were carried in backpacks, because teachers wouldn’t be able to easily tell if the phones were actually in the pouches.

He joined District 12 Board Member Drason Beasley in opposing the policy change.

“I do kind of question what does it really do differently than the current policy?” asked Welch.

Parents and Students Weigh in

The board additionally heard from parents and students on the policy change. That included multiple students from Ravenwood High School who argued for phone access at lunch.

“Banning phones during lunch doesn’t benefit students and teachers,” said a Ravenwood junior. “The current policy is working. Lunch is the one time in the day when teachers are not instructing and should not be responsible for micromanaging thousands of personal devices.”

Dr. Nidhi Gupta was among those arguing in favor of more strict phone policies. She told the board she’s done research on screen time and found that it impacts learning.

“The evidence is clearly, simply the presence of smartphones in learning environment affects students’ attention, memory, behavior, empathy, and school culture,” said Gupta.