Routt County students returning to class from winter break are being greeted by policy changes addressing use of their personal electronic devices.

On Thursday, students at Steamboat Springs High School gathered for a schoolwide assembly where they learned about a new policy that will go into effect Monday.

“It is not a huge shift, but it is a change, and it’s starting on Monday,” said Jay Hamric, principal at Steamboat Springs High School. “We’ve announced it a couple times in our parent information blasts, and we’ve talked about it at board meetings, so the word was on the street, so to speak, in advance of today’s assembly.”

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The new policy is the result of a semester-long study and research on cellphone use in other schools. In a statement, Steamboat Springs schools said this policy is a significant step toward fostering a more focused and supportive learning environment.

The decision to implement this policy was driven by studies and feedback from educators, parents, and students highlighting the negative impact of excessive cellphone use on students’ mental health and academic success. In a statement, the schools said they are “eager to minimize distractions, so we can boost academic performance, support mental health and foster healthy social connections.”

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The Steamboat Springs School Board began discussing a policy in December that would create personal electronic device-free classrooms during the school day, which means no personal electronic devices including cellphones, smartwatches and earbuds.

The policy means all electronic personal devices are turned off and out of sight during the day and that phones are powered down as soon as students enter the classroom until the bell rings.

Hamric said the students knew the changes were coming, and he explained the policy during Thursday’s assembly, as well as the consequences of not following it. Overall, he said, the information was well-received.

The new rules will not be enforced in the commons or hallways, but the use of personal electronic devices will be discouraged. In cases where students violate the policy, administrators will use a Yondr pouch — a secure bag that uses a magnetic lock to store mobile devices.

Hamric said the school board and the student-led Sailor Senate played roles in setting the policy and even paid a visit to Summit High School, where students lock their devices in a Yondr pouch for the entire day. Hamric said he wanted to work with the Sailor Senate to create a policy that met students halfway, while keeping the distraction of personal electronic devices out of the classroom.

“Other school districts have gone to these Yondr pouches where the students lock up their phones as soon as they enter the school building,” Hamric said. “We’re not as restrictive as that, and that is what I saw at Summit County High School, which is a full phone-free school …  We’re not there, we’re not doing that and we’re trying to give some agency to the students so that they can manage the cellphones and know when it’s appropriate to have them out and when it isn’t. We want them to develop some willpower and some discipline around that — which is healthy.”

Steamboat joins Hayden, where new electronic-device limitations went into effect Jan. 6. Students in grades 6-12 are being asked to place their personal electronic devices in a storage caddy when they enter the classroom, with notifications turned off.

Those students will be able to pick up their phones as they leave classroom at the end of the period. The policy will not become official until after the school board meets on Jan. 21, but Superintendent Eric Owen doesn’t expect to see any major changes.

“Our board asked us to go ahead and have a clean start (to the year) coming back from winter break,” Owen said. “We anticipate final approval with no changes to the draft … and what it does is it eliminates students’ use of personal electronic devices during instructional time.”

Owen said the school board has taken active steps to intentionally prioritize student learning during class time. He said the board identified that eliminating the distraction for students using their personal electronic devices was an important step toward that goal.

“The end goal is to have kids engage in instruction, pay attention to instruction and not worry about what might be coming across their phone,” Owen said. “So, our board last spring was really proactive in revising our academic achievement policy, and one of the expectations that they placed on school administrators and on our teaching staff is that we’re providing engaging instruction during that instructional time.”

In South Routt, Superintendent Kirk Henwood said there have been some discussions about the personal electronic device policy.

“We’ve talked about cellphones both at the building level and at the school board level,” Henwood said. “At this point we are treating it as more of a classroom management/discipline issue. We have systems in place where students check in their cellphones as they come in, and it’s working for us.”