NEW - School Board
Policy on Enforcement of Restrictions to Student Personal Mobile Device Use
School boards must develop a local policy setting out how they will
enforce the restrictions on student use of personal mobile devices at school.
The policy must comply with the board’s obligations under the Education
Act and other relevant provincial policy and legislation. The policy
must, at minimum, align with the following direction provided in this
memorandum:
All members of the school community must not use personal mobile devices
during instructional time except under the following circumstances:
- for educational purposes, as directed by an educator
- for health and medical purposes
- to support special education needs
At minimum the local policy must
require that for grades 7 to 12 students’ personal mobile
devices are stored out of view and powered off or set to silent mode during
instructional time, except when their use is explicitly permitted by the
educator under the circumstances outlined above.
If the educator sees a personal
mobile device that is not stored out of view, they must require the device be
handed in for the instructional period and the device must be placed, by the
student, in a storage area in a location in the classroom designated by the
educator
For students in grade 6 and
below, at minimum the local policy must require that students’ personal
mobile devices are stored out of view and powered off or set to silent mode
through out the full instructional day, except when their use is explicitly
permitted by the educator under the circumstances outlined above.
If an educator sees a personal mobile
device that is not stored out of view, they must require the device be handed
in for the instructional day and the device must be placed, by the student, in
a storage area in a location designated by the principal
The student is responsible for their
personal mobile device, how they use it and the consequences of not following
the school board’s policy on personal mobile device use.
If the student does not hand in their personal mobile device when
required, they must be sent to the Principal’s office. Principals have
discretion under PPM No. 145, Progressive discipline and
promoting positive student behaviour, to consider a range of responses to
address this behaviour including suspension. To support the implementation of the
above, the local policy must include:
- an approach to enforcement of the restrictions that includes clear
expectations of responsibility for students, educators, principals and
superintendents
- best practices for educators on classroom management related to
responsible use of technology
- a requirement for schools to have
an annual notification sent to parents and students reminding them of the
policy, its requirements and consequences for non-compliance
- a requirement that the expectations
and responsibilities under the local policy, the best practices for educators
and the annual notifications for parents be shared with all educators and
principals.
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