The Toronto District School Board is looking into creating a new policy to restrict the use of cellphones and social media by students in schools.
The board’s governance and policy committee has approved a motion calling for a new cellphone policy and the board will vote on that motion later this month, which if passed, would launch a process to create a policy that could come out next year.
Board Chair Rachel Chernos Lin, who put forward the motion, says the board doesn’t currently have a standalone cellphone policy and it’s up to the teachers to figure out how to enforce provincial rules embedded in the TDSB code of code that restrict cellphone use.
Lin says the landscape around cell phones and social media use is different now and a specific board policy is needed.
She says teachers and school staff have different comfort levels and abilities to manage cellphone use in their classrooms, and there is a need for clear procedures to guide them.
The Ontario Ministry of Education issued an order in August 2019 to restrict the use of personal mobile devices during instructional time to educational purposes, health and medical purposes, and to support special education needs.