PETALUMA, Calif. (KRON) — The Petaluma School District is considering a cellphone ban for students from transitional kindergarten through 8th grade starting in the 2026-2027 school year.
The proposal was announced during a school board meeting, where officials emphasized the importance of honing instructional time and ensuring consistent procedures across classes.
“This year, that is really what we’re going to be working on is honing that instructional time such that students are all following the same procedures in every class,” said Petaluma School District officials.
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Currently, high school students in Petaluma are allowed to use cellphones only during non-instructional periods. However, the district is considering extending the ban to high school students, potentially requiring phones to be locked in pouches during the school day.
Parents have expressed mixed feelings about the proposed ban. Kevin Pottorff, a Petaluma school parent, suggested allowing limited phone use, acknowledging the distraction they pose.
“Maybe they allow an hour a day, put some kind of time limit on it, but it is a distraction, so it’s going to take some creative problem solving to figure this out,” he said.
Sonia Carr, another parent, believes the downsides of cellphone use outweigh the benefits, particularly regarding children’s brain development.
”There are things that I think it will be useful for like when you’re in a large gathering to find your kid, but I think the downsides far outweigh the advantages. The way phones fill our attention is pretty detrimental to the development of children’s brains,” Carr said.
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The proposal aligns with a state mandate that will ban phones during the school day starting July 2026. Further discussions are expected at the next board meeting.
As Petaluma schools prepare for the upcoming changes, the community continues to debate the impact of cellphone use in educational settings. The district aims to finalize its approach in the coming months.
All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by KRON4. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by KRON4 staff before being published.
Source:: News San Francisco – KRON 4
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