The Anderson school board on Monday approved consequences for students who violate the new statewide school cell phone policy.
Indiana’s new “bell-to-bell” law — Senate Enrolled Act 78, signed by Gov. Mike Braun in March — requires K-12 public and charter schools to prohibit students from having cell phones, smartwatches, wireless headphones and other electronic devices on them during the school day.
During Monday’s meeting, the Anderson Community Schools Board unanimously voted to put the current list of consequences related to the cell phone policy in the 2026-2027 ACS handbook, knowing that the consequences could be changed or modified.
The current policy includes the following:
• On first offense, the student’s device will be confiscated for the rest of the day.
• On second offense, the device will be confiscated and a parent/guardian must come to the school to retrieve it. (This is also a part of the penalty for third and fourth offenses.)
• The third offense would add a day of in-school suspension for K-8 students and 1-3 days of in-school suspension for high schoolers.
• The fourth offense would see K-8 students getting two days of in-school suspension and high schoolers getting 3-5 days of day-detention at ACS’s COMPASS site.
While the new state law bans wireless communication devices in school, students are allowed to use any required medical devices.
During the previous meeting, on July 13, ACS board members agreed to strike a passage from the district’s original cell phone policy that forbade student electronic devices in school buildings during the school day.
The revised policy allows students to bring electronic devices on school grounds, but the devices must be stored inside a locker or cubby during the school day.
Consequences within the cell phone policy were discussed during that meeting but were not voted on.
Some community members said the originally proposed consequences for cell phone policy were too harsh, with the first offense being one day of in-school suspension, and the fourth offense resulting in a 10-day suspension and pending expulsion.
Some community members said Monday that the revised consequences should be more specific instead of stipulating a range of days for in-school suspensions.
This article appeared in The Herald Bulletin.