PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia School District wants to create “phone-free schools,” and officials will soon consider spending $5 million to do so.
On Thursday, the school board is scheduled to vote on a five-year contract with Yondr Inc. that would provide all district schools that want them with individual sealed magnetic pouches limiting students’ access to their phones during instructional time.
“With a cell phone-free environment, schools can increase engagement in the classroom so that there can be a substantial increase in student learning as evidenced by benchmarks, constructed responses, on-track percentages, and teacher assessments,” school board documents say. “Furthermore, the absence of cell phones during the day can help lead to less incidents of cyber bullying, reducing the number of students leaving the building and returning illegally by texting their friends, and a reduction in class cuts.”
