LOS ANGELES—Students in the Los Angeles Unified School District are returning to classes Monday with some new rules in place—including a plan to ban cell phones in classrooms.
The much-debated policy is scheduled to take effect in January and affect the more than 400,000 students who returned to campuses Monday across Los Angeles County.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told KNX News the new cell phone policy is designed to help students focus and concentrate during class time.
“We need to separate them,” Carvalho said. “We need to allow them to be kids again, to allow them to socialize with their peers and be what kids should be: happy, playful joyful.”
The Los Angeles Unified School District board passed a resolution in June in a 5–2 vote calling for the district to prohibit students’ use of cell phones and social media through the entire school day.
Board member Nick Melvoin said the resolution is aimed at combating cyberbullying and promoting focus and concentration in classroom. The proposal cited research indicating the impacts of excessive cell phone use associated with increased stress, anxiety, depression, sleep issues, feelings of aggression, and suicidal thoughts in adolescents.
Some parents are balking at the idea, saying they want their children to have access to phones in case of emergencies.
The resolution co-sponsored by board members Jackie Goldberg and Tanya Ortiz Franklin—contends that students’ use of cell phones “can stifle meaningful in-person interaction and enable cyberbullying.”
Another change in LAUSD will be the introduction of electric school buses. The new buses are being used in some areas Monday with plans to replace all buses with electric vehicles eventually.
In the midst of the coming school year, the LAUSD will ask voters in November to approve a $9 billion bond measure to fund campus upgrades and modernization. Carvalho told the Board of Education last week that more than 60 percent of the district’s school buildings are more than 50 years old and in desperate need of upgrades.
The proposed bond measure will need the backing of 55 percent of voters to pass on Nov. 5.
It is opposed by some including the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which says that over 30 years, the bond measure would cost the owner of a median-priced more than $8,200 in increased property taxes.
But local officials are pointing to safety improvements that have already been made around many campuses.
Mayor Karen Bass said Friday that more than 450 slow zones and 250 speed bumps have been installed near schools to make it safer for children walking to campus.
She also said the city Department of Transportation will deploy more than 500 crossing guards in the 2024-25 school year, calling it the “widest deployment” of crossing guards in over a decade.
“The city moved urgently to install hundreds of safety provisions near schools ahead of this new school year,” Bass said in a statement. “In partnership with the City Council and Los Angeles Unified School District, we took action to make streets safer near schools and we will continue to do more to promote student safety.”
