DISCUSSION ITEMS

Consideration of Revising Board Policy on Student use of Telecommunication Devices

A few months ago, Director Stuart shared a concern that she had heard from others about cell phone use among students. Shortly after this, a high school teacher in Sultan School District in Snohomish County shared with the superintendent how grateful she was for a newly implemented policy in her school district that substantially restricted mobile phone usage. In December, Director Stuart and Michael Green met with Sultan's superintendent to discuss their experience, which has been largely positive.

The lead building and program administrators discussed the idea of a board policy substantially restricting mobile phone use, and there was unanimous support for the idea.

The questions for the board are:

1. Is there board interest in considering modifications to the current board policy to be more prescriptive/restrictive on mobile phone use?
2. Are there public (internal or external) input processes that should occur before making a policy decision?
3. If yes, what should be the parameters that might be considered for a revised policy?

Included for board review are three policy documents:

Woodland Policy 3227 —PERSONALLY OWNED TELECOMMUNICATION AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE

WSSDA Model Policy 3245 — Students and Telecommunication Devices

Sultan School District Policy 3245 — Students and Telecommunication Devices