A 6547: Requires school districts, boards of cooperative educational services, charter schools and nonpublic schools to establish cellphone policies and procedures; requires the establishment of a committee to develop such policies and procedures; requires such policies and procedures to be individually tailored to specific school environments.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 6547 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY March 6, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. BENEDETTO -- read once and referred to the Committee on Education AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to requiring school districts to establish cellphone policies and procedures The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 409-o 2 to read as follows: 3 § 409-o. Cellphone policies and procedures. 1. The board of education 4 or trustees of every school district or, in the case of the city school 5 district of New York, the chancellor, and every board of cooperative 6 educational services, charter school and nonpublic school within the 7 state shall establish a committee to develop policies and procedures for 8 the use of cellphones by students during school hours and shall imple- 9 ment such policies and procedures in their respective school district, 10 board of cooperative educational services, charter school, or nonpublic 11 school. 12 2. The committee required pursuant to subdivision one of this section 13 shall be comprised of representatives of the school district, board of 14 cooperative educational services, or school and other interested parties 15 and shall include, but need not be limited to: the superintendent of the 16 district; principals; teachers; students; parents; and representatives 17 of any teachers' union which has members working in such school 18 district, board of cooperative educational services, or school. 19 3. The policies and procedures required pursuant to subdivision one of 20 this section shall be individually tailored to specific school environ- 21 ments and may, but shall not be required to, include: strategies for 22 in-class cellphone storage, designated areas outside of classrooms for 23 cellphone use, fair and transparent consequences for violations of such 24 policies and procedures, and uniform enforcement of violations. When 25 developing cellphone policies and procedures, committees shall take into EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD10138-01-5 
 A. 6547 2 1 consideration the thoughts and concerns of representatives of the school 2 district, board of cooperative educational services, or school and other 3 interested parties, including students, parents of students, teachers 4 and school administrators. 5 4. The policies and procedures required pursuant to subdivision one of 6 this section shall be established and implemented prior to the start of 7 the two thousand twenty-five--two thousand twenty-six academic year. 8 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.