That means no phone use during passing periods or lunch, a big change in particular for many high school students, who’ve grown accustomed to laxer policies.
Kotek’s order makes Oregon the 27th state to regulate the use of devices during the school day, a movement spurred by widespread concern over both academic distractions and the mental health impacts of the constant exposure to social media on developing adolescent brains.
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers had backed legislation that would have codified the state’s stance on device use at school into law. But after passing the House, their proposal fell apart in the Senate Education Committee over concerns that it was too prescriptive and would be costly for strapped school districts to implement without any accompanying funding attached.
At the time, some lawmakers intimated that the bill’s backers had refused to make compromises to alleviate those concerns, precisely because Kotek was waiting in the wings, ready to issue an executive order.
The governor said Wednesday that she was motivated by the need to “stand up for the promise of every student in every corner of the state,” some of whom are in school districts that have been slow to take action on the issue.
The executive order unveiled Wednesday requires the blanket ban on device use during school hours to be in place as of Jan. 1, 2026. It does not specify how and where students will have to store their devices during the school day, leaving it up to individual districts to decide whether to purchase lockable pouches for mobile phones and smartwatches, to require students to keep them in their lockers, cars or at home or to come up with another solution.
And it asks school boards to define policies for disciplinary consequences for students who have violated the cellphone bans that will be universally enforced — a big change from just two years ago, when rules varied from school to school, and even classroom to classroom. Kotek’s order does specify that disciplinary consequences cannot include the loss of instructional time, taking suspension and expulsion off the table.
Some school districts around the state, including Portland and North Clackamas, have already set updated device use policies banning cellphone use for the entire day, including lunch. Many districts have “off and away” policies, but have left enforcement up to individual classroom teachers and have allowed students to keep their phones in their pockets or easily accessible in their backpacks. Some have tried sending phones to “cellphone jail” via repurposed shoe caddies, but solutions like those let students reclaim their phones at the end of class periods.
Many students have said they agree that phones are a classroom distraction from instruction, but have argued passionately that they should have access to their devices during lunch and passing periods, to communicate with each other, their parents and their employers.
“Cellphones … are used for a wide variety of things, including but not limited to social contact, inspiration, interactive entertainment, medical needs and emergency contacts,” wrote Harvey Bloyd, who just graduated from the Kalmiopsis Community Arts High School in Cave Junction, in testimony submitted to the Legislature. “I personally use my device for medical reasons as well as a direct form of communication with people who may need to get ahold of me throughout the day.”
Students, however, are not monolithic on the question. During a visit this fall to Milwaukie High School, where all students have locking pouches that keep their phones off limits for the entire school day, teens told The Oregonian /OregonLive that they had been skeptical of the policy initially, but allowed that it had ignited lunchtime conversations and better focus during class.
Phones had been at the root of a multitude of problems at school, from hallway fights staged for TikTok to the insistent pings of online bullying, said Gustavo Barraza, who graduated this year from Milwaukie High.
Teachers, meanwhile, have largely been supportive of a universal policy, saying it will benefit both their students’ emotional health and their ability to lead focused and productive classrooms.
“As instructors, we are already being as creative as possible to keep hold of our student’s fleeting attention,” wrote Marianne Schnell-Bruton, a teacher in the Tigard-Tualatin School District in testimony to lawmakers. “Allowing devices from home into our learning space thwarts our efforts to keep our students fully engaged.”
Kotek’s executive order does include some exceptions for students who need their phones for medical reasons, for special needs students who may rely on their phones for assistive technology and for other exemptions approved by school building administrators.
The biggest skepticism toward a statewide policy has come from the school boards who will be charged with crafting policies to execute the bell-to-bell ban and administrators who will carry it out.
“We don’t ban pencils because someone doodles,” Hillsboro school board member Yessica Hardin-Mercado wrote to lawmakers, part of an argument that the state shouldn’t sign off on a one-size-fits-all approach. “We didn’t ban laptops when they were new. We taught students how to use them wisely. Phones should be treated the same way.”
Phone bans have also received some pushback from parents who worry that they won’t be able to reach their children in case of an emergency. But school leaders in Portland, North Clackamas and elsewhere have said that having hundreds of students on their devices during a crisis can jam up phone lines, spread misinformation and interfere with efforts to stay hidden from an intruder.
Kotek’s executive order might not be the final word on the topic in Oregon. Rep. Kim Wallan, R-Medford, the chief sponsor of the cellphone ban bill the Legislature considered this session, said Wednesday that she plans to reintroduce her bill in a future legislative session so that it has a chance at becoming statewide law.
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