Parents want to be connected to their students; teachers want engaged, attentive students; and Butler Area superintendent Brian White wants to find a way to balance the concerns of both groups regarding how cellphones fit into classrooms.

But soon, the decision on how — or if — cellphones belong in schools may be determined by the state. The Pennsylvania General Assembly is considering legislation that would effectively ban student cellphone usage during the school day.

“The challenge with all of this — there’s no doubt (cellphones) are not good for school, but we’re also in a society where parents have heightened concern of safety because of everything that goes on,” White said. “They want to have connectivity. It’s a challenge to balance it out.”

The state Senate, early last month on Feb. 3, passed Senate Bill 1014, a bipartisan piece of legislation that would enact a statewide “bell-to-bell” policy. The policy would prohibit student use and restrict student possession of cellphones on school property during the school day. The rules would take effect at the beginning of the 2027-28 school year.

It was referred to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Education Committee and is awaiting consideration and a vote.

And while it’s still waiting, the bill seems likely to move ahead. It has received broad support from politicians, school administrators and educational organizations.

“It’s time for us to get distractions out of the classroom and create a healthier environment in our schools,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a news release. “Students need to spend time focused on learning, on socializing with their peers and on developing the critical skills they’ll need later in life.”

According to the Pennsylvania State Education Association, 27 other states have laws restricting student mobile device use in schools. This includes 18 that have specifically enacted “bell-to-bell” bans.

In Butler County, Seneca Valley School District calls its cellphone policy a bell-to-bell ban. Slippery Rock and Knoch, too, restrict access to cellphones.

Seneca Valley School District instituted its bell-to-bell policy at the start of the 2025-26 school year and has since touted its benefits. According to its policy, students may keep their phones with them but the staff should not see or hear them.

Superintendent Tracy Vitale previously said the policy helped create a healthier environment, where students are more attentive and teachers are seeing stronger engagement.

Lisa Graham, an intermediate high school counselor, testified to Senate committees that the policy yielded multiple benefits for Seneca Valley students.

“Three months into the school year, the impact of the ‘bell-to-bell’ policy has been overwhelmingly positive,” Graham said in November. “The most immediate and noticeable change we’ve seen is the increase in student face-to-face interactions. Last year in the cafeteria, it was common to see full tables of students sitting together but talking to no one.”

Slippery Rock Area School District’s policy requires students to store their phones in their lockers for the entirety of the day unless explicit permission is granted. Students can have their phones out until homeroom. The policy includes smartwatches, wireless earbuds, headphones and any other electronic communication device.

Slippery Rock’s policy includes establishing a “phone zone,” where students will be able to use their phone in an acceptable manner when staff permission is granted. Slippery Rock also acknowledges in its policy that the medical needs of certain students will be addressed by the nurse on a case-by-case basis.

At Karns City Area, students at the high school are supposed to keep their cellphones turned off, superintendent Eric Ritzert said. He is watching what the state does, saying it would make it easier to navigate further restrictions on the use of cellphones in schools if they took action.

“We generally have asked students not to have their cellphones on during the school day unless they’ve had permission by a staff member in utilizing it that way,” Ritzert said. “Obviously, that may not always work out the way that we intend, but through this school year, the students are able to have them with them, but they’re supposed to be off.”

Butler Area and Mars Area school districts, however, have current cellphone policies that allow some usage.

“At the Senior High School, cellphone usage is permitted in some circumstances,” the senior high school’s student handbook states.

It’s already hard to enforce existing restrictions, White said.

“Kids may have them, but they don’t come out, not in class time unless directed by the teacher,” White said. “With that said, it’s not always followed.

“It definitely interests the folks on the board, with the nuance in policies we see around the area.”

On a Butler Eagle Facebook post in December, nearly 300 community members responded with input on the proposed state crackdown.

Concerns expressed by parents through emails, Facebook and other forms of communication include uncertainty over such a policy’s enforcement and whether the state should be involved in the debate at all.

“God forbid something happens at school, I want my son to have his phone. With that being said, he also knows to keep it turned off during school,” one parent, Kendra Snyder said in reply to the Facebook post.

Another parent, Brandi Radaker, said she felt similarly.

“Just my opinion: I feel the kids should be allowed their phones on silent and not be on them during class,” she said on Facebook. “If emergencies shall happen I want to know where my children are.

“These are kids/teenagers not prisoners.”

Parents who agree with the policy say the benefits outweigh any concerns over cellphone restrictions.

“The kids would be better off without them during the school day,” parent Holly Edmonds said.

Jesse Scheller, a Knoch school board member, joined the conversation to call cellphones a “major distraction from learning.”

He said they contribute to “social and behavioral issues and undermine the focused environment our teachers work hard to create.”

Katelen Shuler, a Butler native who is currently a teacher in Texas, responded to the Butler Eagle to say she and her colleagues have noticed several positive changes with these types of policies.

“This year, I have had less behavior issues in the classroom and students have made more progress in their classes, achieving more goals and overall higher grades,” Shuler said. “I have also noticed that students are actually interacting with one another, talking and playing cards when given free time instead of just being on their devices.”

District leaders have told the Butler Eagle they use apps like ParentSquare to send out any important information to parents and students. These apps have the capacity to send urgent updates, according to district administrators.

“If a parent needs to reach their child during the school day, the proper channel should be through the main office, as it has always been,” Scheller said. “This approach protects instructional time, promotes student engagement, and still ensures that families can communicate in the event of an emergency or important need.”

Pennsylvania State Education Association leadership has come out in support of such legislation. The organization said mobile devices in school settings can disrupt learning, contribute to cheating and fuel cyberbullying.

When the Senate passed the bill, Shapiro called on the state legislature to send a bill to his desk requiring schools to implement policies that take cellphones and mobile devices out of students’ hands “from the time they start class until the time they leave for home.”

But with the amount of technology in students’ learning and curriculum these days, there’s concerns that any restrictions will prove difficult to enforce.

“The truth is we probably missed this debate by 10 years,” White said. “Now, we have smart watches; we have all this technology. What happens if someone has smart glasses, but they’re a prescription?

“It’s very complicated.”