{"id":610383,"date":"2026-04-28T02:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T02:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610383\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T02:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T02:08:09","slug":"statewide-student-cellphone-ban-in-ct-moves-closer-to-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610383\/","title":{"rendered":"Statewide student cellphone ban in CT moves closer to reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some minority Republicans said the bill is not needed at a time when\u00a0many school districts across the state<\/a> have already adopted cellphone-use policies. But Democrats said a statewide policy, even without penalties, would offer guidance at a time when school districts have a wide variety of local policies.<\/p>\n

The bill passed in a bipartisan 117-31 vote after a nearly three-and-a-half-hour debate. Three Democrats voted against the bill and 20 Republicans voted for the legislation, which next heads to the state Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me this is feel-good legislation,\u201d said state Rep.\u00a0Lezlye Zupkus of Prospect, a ranking Republican on the legislative Education Committee. She said some existing policies stipulate means of storage during the day and special accommodations for students with medical issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur teachers thought this was the best policy for students,\u201d said state Rep. Jennifer\u00a0Leeper, D-Fairfield<\/a>, co-chair of the Education Committee, adding that the legislation does not i<\/a>nclude penalties, nor does it suggest methods of storing cellphones during the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cCellphones have become an overwhelming part not only of our day, but also that of our children,\u201d\u00a0Leeper said in introducing the bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese devices, while at times useful pieces of technology, have actually become an addiction for our young people,\u201d\u00a0Leeper said. \u201cThey are becoming increasingly disruptive in the school day, interrupting learning and also, maybe even more importantly, taking the time from our young people where they get to connect with their peers, they get to form relationships with one another, they get to build relationships with trusted adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

School districts would be given the freedom to develop policies, under the bill, including on the use of cellphones in emergencies and health incidents. There would be no penalties for noncompliance. Storage of phones could be in administrative offices or even student backpacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has to be done.\u201d said state Rep. David\u00a0Rutigliano, R-Trumbull<\/a>, calling his town\u2019s policy is inadequate. \u201cThe IQs are down. The test scores are down. The bullying is up, the stress, the suicidal ideations. Every bad thing that can happen has gone up. It\u2019s a health emergency. People are struggling. I think we need to get back to some sort of sanity in our schools.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But\u00a0Zupkus disagreed, saying a statewide policy is not needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been in contact with many, many, many principals, many, many, many superintendents, not just mine but across the state and there have been no problems or complaints reported,\u201d Zupkus said. \u201cEveryone has a policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

She recalled a recent public hearing in which state school officials said three districts did not have cellphone policies. Zupkus said that those three communities have since created policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe heard from superintendents saying they felt like it would be helpful to have a state law to have a backstop to enforce our policies,\u201d\u00a0Leeper said. \u201cSimilarly, we heard from our teachers that said while schools have policies, there are a wide variety of policies. We know there is no data that shows it is good for kids to have their phones for the school day. There\u2019s lots of data that shows it\u2019s harmful for our kids to be filling all of those passing periods, study halls, lunch breaks, free time with their phones instead of connecting with one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zupkus said,\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m debating that it\u2019s also bad for adults and for teachers to have them, and if they can be on their phone in the classroom that\u2019s bad role modeling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Republicans submitted an amendment that would prohibit teachers and administrators from using cellphones as well during the school year. The proposal failed 123-24 in the House, which has a 102-49 Democratic majority.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some minority Republicans said the bill is not needed at a time when\u00a0many school districts across the state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[13590,13589,165,74],"class_list":["post-610383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-all-daily-sites","tag-ct-insider","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}