NEW RIVER VALLEY, Va. – On Aug. 15, many schools in the New River Valley began their school year — but with a significant change.
“We do not allow cell phones at the elementary level. We allow middle school students to bring them, but they have to put them away. We do allow our high school students to have them before the bell rings and after the bell rings during the day.”
Rob Graham
The bell-to-bell policy prohibits the use of cell phones during school hours to further prevent distractions in the classroom.
“It really is a huge distraction as it is to adults. If you’ve got that in your pocket or in your hand, it’s easy to be distracted by that and not focus on education.”
Nancy Bradley
“It’s been a really nice change to see our students interacting with each other again rather than having their heads down and looking at their phones.”
Rob Graham
After an executive order last spring, many schools rolled out the bell-to-bell policy as a trial for this academic year. And now that the policy has become law, the school districts were prepared for this transition.
“For Pulaski County, I think it’s gone really, really well. When we went to implement it and really tried to do as good a job as we could of communicating this to our community.”
Rob Graham
“It’s been interesting to me that there hasn’t been more of an uproar about it. And I honestly think it was the way that school divisions had to go about it last spring that has really helped with the fallout. I don’t think anybody was caught off guard.”
Nancy Bradley
Limiting the use of electronic devices in school has also had a positive impact on the students’ mental health, especially those that were forced to learn remotely during the pandemic.
“It’s taken us a while to get back to having those interactions. Like we want to have… in person. And I think what I have seen so far this year has been really good.”
Rob Graham
While it is just the first week, the results of Gov. Youngkin’s policy look positive. But school administrators are still waiting to see how things are after a few weeks into the school year.