Baltimore County students at 16 middle and high schools will start each class this year by tucking their cellphones away into clear pouches.
Superintendent Myriam Rogers announced the $15,000 pilot program at a press conference Tuesday, less than a week before the first day of school. The district joins a statewide movement to limit phone access in classes as a way to boost student engagement and reduce social media harm.
“Smartphones and school time simply do not mix,” Rogers said Tuesday. “At the very basic level, if you are focused on technology in the classroom, you're not focused on the teacher and the learning that needs to occur there.”
Rogers said that some county middle schools began requiring students to place phones in boxes during class time last year. But the pilot will allow leaders to standardize teacher training and policy, she said, to better track before-and-after data like office referrals for violations of district cellphone rules.
“Our goal is to make sure that we see the referrals greatly reduced in the schools,” Rogers said. “And we're also going to receive anecdotal data from our teachers when they share with us what the climate is like, what the impact has been of not having those cellphones as a distraction that they're competing with while they're trying to instruct students.”
That collected evidence will inform whether the county purchases pouches for all schools in the future — or moves in a different direction.
Some Baltimore City charter schools began locking up cell phones last school year to better engage students in academics and socialization. City schools CEO Sonja Santelises told The Baltimore Banner last week that she hopes to encourage more principals to do the same.
Rogers said the main pushback she hears on cellphone policies is from parents who want to be able to reach their child in crises. That’s why the pouches are usually kept inside classrooms.
“The students always have it in their vision. The teacher always has it in their vision,” she said. “So if, heaven forbid, there's an emergency, you can immediately run and grab your cell phone to access it.”
Baltimore County is also one of over 200 school districts nationwide to file lawsuits against social media giants that own apps like Instagram and TikTok for contributing to the youth mental health crisis.
The 16 county schools that volunteered to pilot the cellphone pouches this year are:
- Towson High School
- Lansdowne High School
- Lansdowne Middle School
- Loch Raven Technical Academy
- Patapsco High School & Center for the Arts
- Sparrows Point High School
- New Town High School
- Deep Creek Middle School
- Franklin Middle School
- Holabird STEM/Middle School
- Pine Grove Middle School
- Sollers Point Technical High School
- Perry Hall High School
- Hereford High School
- Parkville High School
- General John Stricker Middle School
This story has been updated to include the list of Baltimore County schools participating in the cellphone pouch pilot.
