Isle of Wight County’s School Board, on Nov. 14, took its first look at a new policy that would codify cellphone restrictions.

Meanwhile, two state legislators have introduced a bill that School Board Chairman Jason Maresh says would “hamstring” enforcement.

Prior to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s July 9 executive order calling for “cellphone free education,” which blames cellphones for a statewide surge in mental health crises, Isle of Wight County Schools had allowed largely unrestricted student cellphone use in common areas such as cafeterias and hallways at the high school level, and at teacher discretion in grades 4-12 classrooms.

IWCS began new procedures at the start of the school year in accordance with Youngkin’s order, which now require students at all grade levels to keep their phone turned off and in their backpacks or bags from the time they enter the school to the time they exit.

“We’ve really already implemented this from day one,” said Deputy Superintendent Susan Goetz.

The written policy, designated IIBF and titled “cell phones and personal devices” extends the cellphone ban to school buses at the elementary level and codifies that parents and educators are to use school-based communication platforms to communicate with students during the bell-to-bell instructional day. It further codifies that any exemption allowing the use of smartphone apps for students with an individualized education plan or accommodations under section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act must be written into that student’s 504 plan or IEP and be approved by the school nurse coordinator or superintendent’s designee.

The School Board will take a second look and potentially vote on the policy at its Dec. 12 meeting.

Senate Bill 738, which state Sent. Stella Pekarsky, D-Fairfax, and Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, are co-sponsoring, would mandate “no violation of any such student cell phone possession and use policy shall alone constitute sufficient cause for a student’s suspension or expulsion from attendance at school or disruptive behavior authorizing a teacher to remove a student from class.”

As of Sept. 19, five students from Smithfield and Windsor high schools had had their phones confiscated and one student had been suspended for repeated violation of the new restrictions.

“We’ve had some issue with students refusing to turn over their cellphone and then at that point it’s insubordination,” Goetz said in her Nov. 14 update. “We do look at suspension in that case.”

Superintendent Theo Cramer said that while teachers don’t want to suspend a student, the proposed language would effectively bar enforcement.

“A vast majority of our students are complying but in that rare case what options do we have?” Cramer said.

As of its Sept. 18 pre-filing, the bill had been referred to the Senate’s Committee on Education and Health. The General Assembly will reconvene Jan. 8.