Bellevue School District students who check their phones between classes or scroll during lunch would lose that access under a statewide "away for the day" bill that Gov. Bob Ferguson plans to prefile in December.
The bill is backed by State Superintendent Chris Reykdal and new survey data showing wide gaps in school phone policies across Washington.
The proposal follows data from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, released Tuesday, July 15, showing that 31% of Washington school districts have no cell phone policy at all. OSPI surveyed 82% of the state's districts, charter schools, and state-tribal education compact schools this spring.
What BSD does now
Bellevue School District already restricts phones during class. Newsletters from Chinook Middle School (March 2026) and Tillicum Middle School's student handbook describe a district policy requiring devices to be in bags, turned off, and out of sight during instructional time. Students may use phones before school, between classes, during lunch, and after school.
That approach would not satisfy the proposed legislation. Under "away for the day," phones would need to be stored or left at home from first bell to last.
The data behind the push
Among districts that have adopted phone restrictions, 57% reported fewer classroom disruptions, 50% reported higher student engagement, and 40% reported more student-to-student interaction, according to the OSPI survey.
OSPI also found that 44% of districts let individual schools set their own rules, which the agency described as fragmented implementation within individual communities.
"Our students don't need another study — they need us to act," Reykdal said in the July 15 OSPI news release.
Since 2024, when Reykdal first challenged districts to adopt phone policies, 84 have done so. But the superintendent said consistency matters most: policies work better when expectations are uniform across every school and every classroom in a district.
What comes next
Ferguson announced in June 2026 that he will prefile the bill on December 7, the first day prefiling opens. A detailed proposal is expected by September 15. If the Legislature passes the bill in the 2027 session, districts would implement the policy in September 2027.
The legislation would include exemptions for teacher-directed instructional use, emergencies, students with Individualized Education Programs or Section 504 plans, and health monitoring devices.
Not everyone supports the change. High school senior Julie Che testified against a phone-restriction bill in January 2026, citing safety concerns. "With the current prevalence of school shootings in public schools, it scares me to think about the possibility of being unable to contact anyone," Che told legislators.
Most states have already enacted some form of school phone restriction, with Education Week reporting that 40 states have passed limits since 2023.
BSD has not publicly commented on the proposed statewide mandate. If the bill passes, the district would need to implement the new policy by September 2027, one year after its 2026-27 school year begins on Wednesday, September 2.
