As Isle of Wight and Surry county students adapt to more restrictive procedures governing cellphone use in line with Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order calling for “cellphone-free education,” two state senators have introduced legislation that would prohibit expulsion of students solely for repeated cellphone use during school hours.

Under new procedures Isle of Wight County Schools enacted at the start of the school year, students at all grade levels are required to keep their cellphones turned off and in their backpacks or bags from the time they enter their school to the time they exit.

Smartwatches also are prohibited from being used as communication devices.

Surry County Public Schools’ procedures in place prior to Youngkin’s order already prohibited cellphones at its sole elementary school and required middle school students to store them in their lockers upon entering Luther Porter Jackson Middle School. At Surry County High, students are required to turn off their cellphones and store them out of sight during instructional time.

Senate Bill 738, which will be introduced when the General Assembly reconvenes in January, 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.” It’s sponsored by state Sens. Stella Pekarsky, D-Fairfax, and Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield.

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 cellphone restrictions.

The draft legislation would further codify exceptions to Youngkin’s ban on cellphone use by special education students with individualized education programs, or IEPs, or 504 accommodation plans under Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act. A final guidance document the Virginia Department of Education released Sept. 16 specifies the VDOE has partnered with school nurses, pediatricians and the Virginia Department of Health to address medical exemptions for students with IEPs, 504 plans or medical needs that require the use of smartphone apps for health monitoring.

In accordance with this, Isle of Wight’s policy states students with a medical issue that requires cellphone use will need documentation.

The final guidance, which is otherwise largely unchanged from a draft the VDOE released in August, mandates that all other elementary, middle and high school students not have a cellphone or other electronic communication device on their person at any time during the “bell-to-bell” school day. The guidance defines the term to mean any time between the first bell that starts instructional time to the dismissal bell, including lunch and time between class blocks.

“I am proud to continue working with my colleagues to advocate for our students, teachers, and families,” Pekarsky said in a news release. “As the former school board chair of the largest school division in the commonwealth, I understand it is imperative that we strike the right balance through legislative action. Giving school boards, localities and communities the tools to implement these policies to ensure their needs are met is the common-sense way to accomplish distraction-free education for all.”

“We have ample research that demonstrates the ways in which devices such as cellphones not only distract from focus, but actually impede learning, limit retention of information, impair brain development in very young children and can cause harm to mental health,” Hashmi said in a news release. “A cellphone-free learning environment improves learning, social skills, concentration and the general health of the classroom. Our legislation provides assurances for students, parents and educators that special concerns are protected while the distractions of mobile phones are limited.”

Youngkin’s July 9 order blamed cellphones for a statewide surge in mental health crises.

According to American Psychological Association data cited in Youngkin’s order, American teens spend 4.8 hours per day using YouTube, TikTok and other popular social media apps on cellphones, with 10% of the highest users expressing suicidal or self-harm intent over the past 12 months as of April 1 of this year.

Prior to Youngkin’s order, Isle of Wight had allowed largely unrestricted student cellphone use in color-coded “green” areas such as cafeterias, common areas and hallways at the high school level, and at teacher discretion in grades 4-12 “yellow” classrooms.