EUGENE, Ore. — As students return to school, we’re getting a better look at how districts are handling Governor Tina Kotek’s new ban regarding cellphones on campus.

The governor’s executive order states that schools must implement the new rules by the first of January, but Bethel School District says the change starts on the first day of school.

Bethel School District’s Director of Teaching and Learning, Dan Hedberg, spoke with us about the new changes saying, “here in Bethel Schools, this is something that has been near and dear to us for quite some time. For a good decade, we’ve been navigating cell phones and smart watches and air pods in classrooms. And we’ve tried to great many strategies over time of how to curve the technology in no-cell bell-to-bell in an effort to try to maximize student focus, student engagement, student retention, student learning, and student social-emotional health.”

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While Bethel schools have already implemented a ban on cellphone use during instruction, with some schools enforcing that phone be left in lockers, now phones will also need to stay put away during passing periods and lunch breaks. This is something Hedberg says will get some taking use to for middle school and high school students, “We’ve got other campuses that may not have lockers or we’re not yet implementing that policy that is then going to create an opportunity for them to improve and revise those policies to become compliant with A, the executive order, but B, and most importantly, what we know is best for kids and teaching and learning and their mental health, which is six hours free with no phones.”

The district says the first few weeks will be used to experiment what works and what doesn’t. “We’ve been working with teachers and community focus groups to explore how do we best do this, the way that supports our staff and our parents and our students in a way that is reasonable and viable that can be consistent and compassionate for the student experience. Because like you say, it’s a big shift, right? And so, we looked at a short menu of options in these other 31 states that have implemented this already. The list of strategies is not terribly robust, right? Put it away in your locker, put it away in your backpack or use another tool like an envelope that kids put it in when they enter the school building. Some of these envelopes have names like a yonder pouch or there’s other companies that make said envelopes. And so, we’re going to be trying a variety in different schools of some of those strategies so that we can respond to the different contexts of the various schools,” said Hedberg.

One question many parents have is how the district will communicate with their child during an emergency situation, “In all of our surveys and focus groups, it was really, really clear how important student safety is to students, staff and parents, right? That was a strong light of consistency that there is an impression that we are safer with our cell phones around us. What we’re also learning in partnership with the Eugene Police Department and our school resource officer is that actual campus safety comes from well-trained adults and students who are well practiced in their responses to emergency situations and then they’re well-rehearsed in what their roles and responsibilities are at that time. And we know from the experiences over time that the schools that are the safest are the schools where everybody knows their role and in the case of an emergency, the role of the student is to be listening to the adults who have been deeply trained on how to support safety in that environment and respond to the directions of the adults in a really mindful and efficient fashion. And then we are committed as a school district in the event of an emergency of making sure that we are prepared to communicate directly with the adults in their lives because they are the main part of student safety nets, right? So with those guardians making sure that they have all the right information at the right times right away ensures that they can best support their students when they come home and want to and need to process what has happened that day, whether it’s the great thing that happened in the classroom or the challenging event that happened.” said Hedberg.

The district uses a program called ‘Parent Square’ as a means to deliver information to parents.

“So, by the time we have a need to alert all parents, all staff, all students in any way, we can do that with extreme efficiency. So, we want to make sure that we have all the facts and everything ironed out quickly and then communicate effectively. And then in that communication making sure that we’re including in there when our next communication is going to come to you. Right now, this is what we know we’re going to get back to you in 10 minutes. Right now, this is what we know we’re going to get back to you in 10 minutes or whatever the situation calls for so that parents have a chance to digest that information and then be looking forward to the next set of information. And you’ve already been in communication with parents regarding the new change this school year,” said Hedberg.

He tells us that the school district is communicating new guidelines for parents this year regarding getting ahold of your student. There will also be community focus groups hosted throughout the year to allow parents to share their thoughts and concerns about the new protocols.

“So, we’ve already hosted a series of community focus groups where some online, some in person, people have come and shared what some of their thoughts are and some of their concerns so that we can start this process with as many voices being heard as possible. And then part of our commitment and one of the outcomes from those focus groups was we need to live it for about 30 days and then we need to have another conversation. So, we’ve planned now for at the beginning of October to again survey our community and our staff and our students to learn about what’s working and what’s not and how can we get better. And then we’re committed to doing that again at the end of the first semester, so about January and then at the end of the school year. So, we’re going to have three different touch points, kind of a short term, a midterm and a yearlong so that we can see the outcomes and how this is impacting teaching, learning and student relationships in each one of those phases,” said Hedberg.

The first day of school is Tuesday September 2nd for Bethel District Schools.