Modesto City Schools approves cellphone policy for TK-12. What it dictates
The Modesto City Schools board conditionally approved a new cellphone policy Monday night, directing staff to revise the proposed language. Because this is a new policy under the student conduct code, it will come back to trustees with their requested changes on April 20 for an additional review.
The new policy was brought to the board after California Assembly Bill 3216 mandated school districts to adopt regulations prohibiting or restricting cellphone use on campus by July.
The policy will restrict cellphones throughout the school day for all grade levels. Phone use will not be allowed on campus throughout the entire day, including lunch and passing periods. Once school is over, students are free to use their phones on campus.
The ramifications for using a phone differ by grade level.
For TK through eighth-grade students, the first and second offenses will require their parents to pick up the phones from the office at the end of the school day and a referral to the office for the student. The third offense additionally requires a parent conference.
For ninth- through 12th-graders, the first offense will require the student to pick up the phone from the office at the end of the school day. The second offense will require a parent to pick up the phone, and a third offense would require a parent conference.
The district created a task force composed of teachers, classified staff, administrators and bargaining unit representatives for a policy that serves the needs of instructors and students alike.
“It was the committee’s belief that it would not be good for the teacher to have to engage in a back-and-forth with the student to try to get that phone from them. Nor would it do well for them to have to store that expensive device,” David Houck, senior director of child welfare and attendance, said at the March 30 board meeting regarding the decision to have the office hold onto student devices upon an offense.
The California Education Code stipulates that students are allowed to use their phones for health-related reasons if they have a doctor’s note that states cell phone use to be essential, or during a schoolwide emergency.
Signed into law in September 2024, Assembly Bill 3216 aims to reduce digital distractions during class time and reduce mental health impacts of social media and screen addictions. Just last week, a jury in California found Meta and YouTube liable for creating an app intentionally addictive to teens.
Currently, MCS’s policy is that students are allowed to have cellphones throughout the school day so long as they are turned off and stored during class. “However, feedback from staff and administrators indicates that enforcement has been inconsistent across sites, leading to the need for clearer expectations,” Houck said.
The task force put forward a survey that informed its policies, with over 8,000 responses from students, 3,700 from parents and 1,200 from staff.
While concerns around the impact of social media and phone use during class time are shared among parents and instructors, many parents still want or need to communicate via cellphone to arrange pickup and drop-off with their children — especially those with after-school extracurriculars.
In the survey the district conducted, TK-6 parents and students were more in favor of a ban on cellphones during class time rather than throughout the day. However, for seventh- through 12th-graders, all respondents were largely in favor of a ban during class time rather than the whole day.
The board almost unanimously disagreed with the proposed recommendations from the survey, citing data from other school districts that found success with improved grades and decreasing disciplinary actions following complete cellphone bans.
“There’s a ton of research that says that most bullying happens during the schoolday from 8:30 to 3:30, at lunch online, during passing periods online, and that schools … that have banned cellphones for the entire school day have seen a reduction in online bullying,” Trustee Abel Maestas said.
Superintendent Vanessa Buitrago said a phone ban pilot policy she witnessed at one of the previous districts where she worked resulted in changes in student behavior.
“What we did see immediately, like day one, was just a steep drop in all misconduct. So it wasn’t just bullying. Like the issue with students leaving to go to the bathroom or to wander around, that just stopped,” Buitrago said. “Because oftentimes when students leave to go to the restroom to vape or fight or whatever, the first thing they do is communicate [on their phone] with other students before they go.”
“The biggest learning for me during doing those pilots was that I saw that it was healthy for students to not have their phones,” she added.
This story was originally published April 1, 2026 at 11:49 AM.
