Bill requiring schools to have policies prohibiting cell phones heads to Shapiro’s desk<\/a><\/p>\nSupporters said the new restrictions would refocus students on education and improve mental health by reducing distractions. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot allow our next generation to have their education, mental health, and future stolen from them,\u201d said Sen. Devlin Robinson, the bill\u2019s prime sponsor.<\/p>\n
The legislation would allow school districts to decide how to enforce the cellphone ban.<\/p>\n
Several school boards already have similar restrictions in place this year, including the Harrisburg, Cumberland Valley and Manheim Central school districts.<\/p>\n
The bill includes several exceptions that would allow students to access their phones during the school day, including:<\/p>\n
English second language learners needing a device for translation purposesStudents that have certain medical conditionsStudents that have an individual education plan that requires the use of a mobile deviceSpecial occasions, such as field day or a science fair<\/p>\n
Under the proposal, parents who need to contact their child would be directed to call or email the school. Some residents said that approach could create additional burdens for school staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we just added more duties to an overworked, overburdened principal, assistance principal… So now they\u2019ve got to do their job, and they\u2019ve got to monitor a hotline,\u201d said Marc-Carroll Rigel, a Harrisburg resident.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania would join 28 other states in restricting these devices during the school day.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur students, they get about 237 notifications a day. And, if you multiply that by the number of students in the classroom, it just becomes very overwhelming for the students. It becomes overwhelming for educators,\u201d said Aaron Chapin, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association.<\/p>\n
The bill would take effect once it is approved by Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has previously pledged to sign the legislation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 From the first bell to the last, Pennsylvania students could soon be expected to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-312302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}