OUSD school year set to start with new cellphone policy

Oakland public school students are bracing for a “bell-to-bell” cellphone ban as the school district’s new policy comes into effect when the school year begins on Monday. 

Students will have to turn in their cellphones and any other devices capable of calling, texting or accessing the internet at the beginning of the school day, and will only get them back when the final bell rings, Oakland Unified School District said in a communication to parents last month. 

Elementary school students will place their phones in lock boxes at the start of the day. Middle and high school students will use Yondr pouches, which they will carry throughout the day but cannot open until the end of the day. Yondr pouches are fabric bags that magnetically lock and require a special base station to open.

OUSD estimates  the policy will cost around $500,000 to cover the purchases of pouches and lock boxes. 

A student can only access the phone during school hours in case of a health or safety emergency, or when authorized by a teacher, administrator or doctor. 

The total ban will help students focus not only in class, but also in between classes by eliminating distractions, said district spokesperson John Sasaki. It also eliminates the logistical issues with locking phones in Yondr pouches or lockboxes, then unlocking, then locking them again, he added. 

The district opted not to give students access to their phones during lunch breaks. 

“Phone use can also slow the growth of social skills in some students, which is partly why phone use will not be allowed during lunch and longer breaks so students can more easily engage with each other in person,” OUSD said in its communication with parents. 

Before the new policy, Oakland schools had taken different approaches to manage device use: some required phones to be powered down and kept in backpacks, while others required Yondr pouches. The new policy, required by a state law, will create a consistent approach throughout the school district.

A law passed in 2024 required California school districts to adopt policies limiting or prohibiting smartphones by July 1, 2026. Districts must update these policies every five years. In response, the OUSD School Board voted in June to adopt the new rules.

No students or teachers addressed the board during public comment at the June meeting. One community member asked if teachers would be required to enforce the policy and if that might lead to confrontations with students. Superintendent Denise Sadler noted that each school site has been enforcing individual policies and that the new rule is just making the protocol uniform. 

Oakland teachers have come out in support of the ban, according to published reports. The Oakland Education Association did not respond to Oakland North’s request for comment. 

At the June meeting, Nelson Alegria, OUSD’s executive director of safety, presented surveys showing more than two-thirds of 38 school administrators support the full cellphone ban, as do a vast majority of the 336 parents, teachers and staff who responded. That survey did not include the approximately 34,000 students in the district. 

Alegria said a bell-to-bell ban creates “consistent expectations across all grades, eliminates distractions throughout the entire day, supports focus, learning, and mental engagement, and promotes face-to-face interaction and school connectedness.” 

OUSD policy does not specify disciplinary actions for students who violate the rules. The schools will follow an established discipline matrix to determine what kind of behavior rises to the level of needing discipline and what measures to take to mitigate the behavior, Sasaki said. For example, using a cellphone is categorized as a technology violation that does not require parent consultation unless the student shows repeated offenses. However, bullying and harassment through electronic comments qualify as more serious offenses.  

Alegria told the school board that “you can’t be suspended for having your phone on but you can be suspended for other social media related to technology.” 

Parents weigh in

Lena Gibson, a parent of students in seventh, eighth and 12th grades, told Oakland North she doesn’t like the one-size-fits-all approach.

“I could see the worry that a lot of these kids do spend a lot of time on their phones and how that could distract them from the school setting and things,” Gibson said, but added she would like to have access to her kids throughout the day. 

“It’s a lot of school mass shootings. What if, hypothetically speaking, if something was to happen, how would I be able to have access to them?” she asked. 

Adam Eads, a parent of second and seventh graders, favors the policy.

“I actually think it’s great. I think less phones at school is better,” Eads said. 

He added that limiting access is key. “If the goal is to have the use drop to something close to zero during the school day, I think you probably need to remove it.” 

California does not require a total ban of cellphones on school campuses, giving local governing bodies the authority to shape their own policies. Bay Area schools have adopted varying restrictions, from banning phones during class to prohibiting them the whole day.

State Assemblymember Josh Hoover, the bill’s author, said that while OUSD’s policy aligns with the law’s intent, the legislation offers flexibility. Districts may adopt bell-to-bell bans , he said, “as long as they leave room for the handful of exceptions.”

When the bill was drafted, Hoover said, there wasn’t enough support for a full prohibition of cellphones.

“I think this was a movement that was still growing, it was still gaining momentum,” he said. “So we decided at that time to write the bill with additional flexibility, not only to allow something to move forward, but also to respect the local control of school districts.”

Adriane Armstrong, a parent of fourth and seventh graders, believes kids shouldn’t use phones at school, though self-management has worked well for her own children.

“Maybe this is like the punitive measure that we all have to take because not everyone can get on the same page,” she said.

Armstrong’s children agree with the ban but said it won’t affect them much, as they do not use their devices during school hours. 

Her middle-schoool-age son said the change wouldn’t matter much to him. 

Her younger son said he only uses his smartwatch to check the time. “People shouldn’t use their devices so much,” he said.

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