Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools introduces new phone use policy

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools implemented a new cell phone policy to limit screen time during school hours for the 2024-25 academic year earlier this month. 

The new guidelines are meant to improve class time and minimize distractions, Chief Communications Officer for CHCCS Andy Jenks said.

“For the first time, we have consistent rules and expectations across all schools at the middle school level and then slightly different rules at the high school level,” Jenks said. 

In all four middle schools across the district, students are expected to follow “away for the day” rules, meaning students can bring a phone to school, but they are supposed to remain in students' lockers during the school day.  

At Chapel Hill High School, East Chapel Hill High School and Carrboro High School, students are allowed to carry their phones but they must be turned off, silenced and stored out of sight at the beginning of each class period. 

Katherine Reynolds, a junior at East Chapel Hill High School, said her high school has started to crack down a little bit more on phone usage. 

At Phoenix Academy High School, students are required to turn in their cell phones to the main office when they first enter the building. This has already been the rule for several years according to the CHCCS website. 

However, Jenks said there are some exceptions to the cell phone use rules. 

“If the phone is necessary for some sort of classroom activity, or if a teacher permits a brief technology break, those are examples where a student might be able to take a phone out,” Jenks said. 

Jenks said the new expectations are not banning cell phone use, but rather setting rules so students can focus on their classes. 

Christen Campbell, a French teacher at Chapel Hill High School, said the rules for cell phone usage last year were pretty gray because there was not clear communication at the district level. 

“This year, that communication has been very clear, and it definitely feels like we have more consistency and alignment across the board,” Campbell said. 

Campbell said that her students are going to need to learn how to navigate the world with their phones and how to control themselves in class. She added this year she has not had to battle students to get off their phones during class and that she wastes less class time redirecting students. 

“I also find that they're more engaged because they don't have that distraction,” Campbell said. “And I think they agree with me as well, that it's been a positive change.”

Reynolds said teachers are using laminated signs with a check mark to signal to students when they are allowed to use their phones. Usually the signs show an “X” to show when not to use phones, she said. 

“It's just like a paper sign that you flip either side,” Reynolds said. “And it's really only a few teachers that still engage with it daily.”

In most of her teachers' classrooms, students aren't allowed to be using their phones as much as they had in past years, Reynolds said. 

“A lot of students would say it's frustrating because if you know what time you need to be spending on your schoolwork, then that's up to you when to use your phone or not,” Reynolds said.

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