Oregon lawmakers appear to have abandoned a policy to ban cellphone use in Oregon schools, after the proposal couldn’t clear a key Senate committee on Wednesday.
Now, Gov. Tina Kotek could be waiting with a plan of her own.
House Bill 2251 would have required all of the state’s 197 school districts to bar students from using phones from “bell to bell” — the start of the regular school day until its end. The bill offered limited exceptions to that rule for kids in special circumstances, but also required that districts create consequences for students who violate the ban.
The bill passed the House in April and would have put Oregon in league with at least 19 states that have statewide K–12 cell phone bans. Currently, individual districts around the state, including Portland, have implemented their own policies.
HB 2251 had support from some school districts and from those who argued strenuously that smartphones pose a major threat to both students’ emotional well-being and their ability to learn without distraction.
Testimony from the Oregon Psychiatric Physicians Association and other subject-matter experts laid out threats such as negative self-esteem issues and impaired thinking that can come with ready access to phones.
“By curbing in-school cellphone use, this bill would reduce distractions, bolster attention and performance, support healthier self-esteem, and strengthen peer connections,” Daniel Nicoli, chair of the psychiatric association, wrote in testimony. “Equally important, it helps young people be present.”
But the bill ran into opposition from some school districts that argued for the ability to set their own limits on phone use, and worried that the bill would create a mandate they didn’t have the funding or resources to enforce. Some parents also voiced worries that they’d be unable to reach their children in case of an emergency.
Those concerns ultimately soured the majority of the five-person Senate Education Committee. In a lengthy discussion on Wednesday — the group’s final meeting before a crucial bill deadline this Friday — the committee considered a number of options.
The chair, Sen. Lew Frederick, D-Portland, argued the bill should be sent to the Senate Rules Committee, where it could avoid bill deadlines and where lingering concerns could be massaged. But all four other committee members disagreed for various reasons.
Sen. Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, said sponsors of the bill had shown little openness to changing the bill in ways she favored, such as creating more leeway for older students to access phones.
Sollman said she’d gained approval from school officials in her district to support a scaled-back proposal favored by the Oregon School Boards Association and Coalition of Oregon School Administrators. But she said sponsors of the bill declined to submit that amendment and had indicated Kotek planned to issue an executive order on the matter if lawmakers didn’t act.
“If I believed that this policy was going to continue to have conversation [in the Rules Committee], I would be there,” Sollman said of voting to keep the bill alive. “But with that being told to me, I don’t believe there would be any movement.”
Kotek’s office didn’t immediately respond to inquiries about plans for an executive order. But the governor made clear to reporters on Monday that she wanted lawmakers to pass the bill.
“From bell to bell, we need to keep cellphones away so kids can focus in the classroom, be more supported, be more connected,” Kotek said. “It‘s good for their well-being. The research is clear, and I really urge legislators to get that done.”
Sollman wasn’t the only one voicing concerns with the cellphone ban.
Sen. Suzanne Weber, R-Tillamook, said she’d heard loudly from schools in her coastal district that a state mandate could be costly and tough to enforce.
“I had one superintendent on Saturday tell me that money is tight,” Weber said. “They’re having to let people go. Are they then going to have to dedicate an employee to managing cellphones when they could have that employee in the classroom helping students?”
Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, D-Corvallis, worried that the bill removed protections in current law for students with disabilities who need phones.
Sen. Noah Robinson, R-Cave Junction, appeared supportive of the bill, saying he worried deeply about student cellphone use, but said he didn’t like the idea of punting the decision to another committee.
As the meeting closed, Frederick, the committee chair, made a final plea to get his colleagues to keep the bill alive.
“I see the heads shaking there,” he said. “I’m sorry to see this. I think we will probably struggle with other issues as a result.”
Sen. Lisa Reynolds, D-Portland, a chief sponsor of HB 2251, said following the hearing that it was a “tough morning.”
“We couldn’t find a middle ground with the members of the Senate Education Committee,” said Reynolds, a pediatrician who urged lawmakers to pass the law to protect students. “I will say we felt very good about our chances of passing this on the Senate floor, just like it was passed on the House floor.”
Reynolds said she plans to bring the bill back next year. She would not speculate on whether Kotek would take action before then.
“She’s been in touch with our office, and in touch with our team of legislators that are working on this,” Reynolds said. “I think she’s going to look at it.”
