Fact Sheet & Highlights: An Act to Promote Student Learning and Mental Health S.2561
An Act to promote student learning and mental health seeks to keep students’ eyes on their classwork and instructors and away from their cell phones. By removing personal cell phone use from the classroom, Massachusetts public schools will be places where students can focus on learning. Reasonable exceptions to the rule will safeguard students who need their phone for treating medical conditions, for an individualized education plan (IEP), or to accommodate a disability. Details of the Senate bill are outlined below.
Distraction-Free Classrooms
No Cell Phones During the School Day. Under policies that districts would be required to implement by the autumn of 2026, students in every public school district in Massachusetts would be prohibited from using or holding onto their personal electronic devices during the school day, either at school or during school-sponsored activities.
Communication with Parents. Schools would be required to ensure at least one way for parents and guardians to contact a student, and vice versa, during the school day.
Reasonable Exemptions
Doctor’s Notes, Lesson Plans, Travel. Students would be able to hold onto their devices with a note from a health care provider stating it is necessary to treat a health condition, which may include smart technology such as a continuous glucose monitoring system. Other exemptions to the rule include using a device as part of an individualized educational plan (IEP) or during travel time between school and off-campus learning opportunities.
Local Flexibility. Schools would craft district-specific policies that implement the constraint on cell phone use in a way that makes the most sense for the local community. Options may include pouches, lockers, or some other storage system. School districts could also write variations into their local rules based on grade level or the structure of the school day.
Administrative Requirements
Shaping the Policy. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) would formulate guidance and a model policy to provide a template for school districts. DESE would solicit public input and then make its recommendations publicly available online. The agency would have 180 days to prepare a model policy after the law takes effect.
Local Implementation. Public schools and school districts would implement their cell phone policies before the school year begins in the autumn of 2026.
Notice to Families. As families prepare for each new school year, local districts would be required to notify students and caregivers about the policy every year by September 1.
Initial Report on Implementation. The Legislature would hear back from DESE by the end of 2027 about how these policies were deployed in local districts.
Yearly Check-Ins. Every local school district would file a copy of its current policy with DESE every year.