The Kansas State Board of Education created a Blue Ribbon Task Force to investigate student use of cell phones and personal devices in classrooms. The task force was created to make recommendations and guidelines that will be presented to the State Board during their meeting on Nov. 12 and 13. If the Board comes to a decision, it will be expected all Kansas public schools follow the new guidelines.
According to Director of Strategy Jake Steele, the task force is made up of school administrators, teachers, students, parents and state legislators in order to gain insight from people with varying points of view.
“Rather than just making decisions, they wanted to hear from individuals across the state in various positions, as well as experts,” Steele said. “Every week, we bring on panelists to come talk.”
Steele said the task force has also been getting research from various sources outside of the many different perspectives on the panels.
“One of our texts that the board was the ‘Anxious Generation’ by Jonathan Hyatt,” said Steele. “We’ve also been able to reach out to research groups and think tanks across America who have researched deep on [our topic].”
The task force has been conducting their meetings online over Zoom since Aug. 22. During the meetings, the group has been presenting research and discussing observations made in order to form their opinions. The meetings are available to stream on YouTube through a link on the task force page on the KSDE website.
So far, the task force has covered personal device use in schools, screen time and mental health, parental oversight of school-owned devices and collective action. Once they complete their topic-specific meetings, they will begin drafting their report.
The task force’s recommendations will be voted on by the Board of Education during their meetings on Dec. 10 and 11. According to Steele, after this decision is made, public school districts will have the opportunity to act upon the new guidelines and implement their own policies that are in line with the board’s authority.
