<p>Just changed this year to OK to see/use phone between classes and during other non-class times. my son actually uses his phone for assignments in one class. (Needs to call people for marketing.)</p>
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Are you in the U.S.?</p>
<p>Using jammers is illegal in the U.S and many other countries:</p>
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</p>
<p>[Jamming</a> Cell Phones and GPS Equipment is Against the Law | FCC.gov](<a href=“http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/jamming-cell-phones-and-gps-equipment-against-law]Jamming”>http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/jamming-cell-phones-and-gps-equipment-against-law)</p>
<p>[Mobile</a> phone jammer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“Mobile phone jammer - Wikipedia”>Mobile phone jammer - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>I remember reading a story a few years ago that in NYC businesses had sprung up where the kids could drop their phone off outside the school, and then pick it up when they left.</p>
<p>Beyond issues of possession and usage, one school system around here decided that cell phones are equivalent to a student’s locker, and can be searched at any time for any reason at the whim of the administration. The legality of this seems highly questionable, but I don’t think it has been legally challenged as of yet that I have heard.</p>
<p>I think ours has a policy of it has to be away and quiet. The policy may still be it has to be in the locker. That isn’t enforced at all. Other enforcement varies by teacher. Every kid has an iPad and wifi so it’s kind of a moot point. I want my kid to have access to reach me in an emergency.</p>
<p>Ours just changed this year to the same policy as 1214mom and rom and eastcoascrazy (huh, same county? Or just a wave of culture shifts on the east coast?). It doesn’t make any difference because our kids never manage to have their phones charged or with them or on. Of course, I often don’t either, I guess we just aren’t phone people :-). A couple times I’ve gotten online chat messages from my younger son during school . . . just to say hi. Kinda sweet.</p>
<p>It turns out that our county is piloting a new program called BYOD – bring your own device. In selected schools, kids are encouraged to bring in their own smart phones or tablets and teachers are using them in the curriculum. If the child doesn’t own a device the school can provide one. I gather students can do web research or take polls, make movies, that sort of thing.</p>
<p>This year the school changed the cell phone policy - it’s open carry. As a matter of fact if you need to contact your student you text the student directly (don’t call the office to have them call the classroom to have your student come upfront for money, keys, etc). Not sure how much power individual teachers have over usage in the classroom but my kid does text me quite a bit from class.</p>
<p>No fine (I’m not paying a fine and you’re not keeping my cell phone, yeah it’s MY cell phone). I don’t think she ever got confiscated though.</p>
<p>My school’s policy is an incredibly strict no-phone policy. Either you don’t bring a phone to school, or you turn it in to the office in the morning. I think the first infraction is a fine, and then you can get suspended. </p>
<p>In NYC, official citywide policy is that students are not allowed to enter school buildings with cellphones. But the only schools where this is enforced is in buildings that have metal detectors, which are mostly buildings where there was a long-ago history of violence. Since many, maybe most high school students and many middle school students travel to school via public transportation, the policy is largely unenforced to a don’t ask-don’t tell in most school buildings. And yes, there are businesses outside high school buildings with metal detectors that rent spaces for cell phones to be stored, but that is a pretty hefty price for mostly poor students–the great majority of students in almost all school buildings with metal detectors are eligible for free- and reduced-price lunch and cannot easily pay $5-10/week to store their phones.</p>
<p>We have a new mayor and a new schools chancellor and I believe the no-phones policy will change soon. Also I think it’s likely that metal detectors may disappear from many school buildings.</p>
<p>I’m doing a lot of classroom observation for a grad course in education that I’m taking this spring, and all of the kids at the school I’m visiting seem to have smart phones. I asked one student this past week if he’d seen a particular item of interest online yet, and he hadn’t. The teacher turned to him and said, “You’ve got your phone there. Look it up!” He did.</p>
<p>Clearly she views this portable technology as just one more tool that she can harness in the educational process.</p>
<p>Cell policy meaningless at D’s school. They gave them all iPads last year and they play on those all day long. Grrr. Sometimes I kind of miss the days when my kids couldn’t find me except for an emergency. They did previously have a cell in the locker ok, but never enforced it. Now it depends on the teacher, but it’s irrelevant with their iPad in front of them.</p>