New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Tuesday said she is fighting to persuade state legislators to adopt her “bell-to-bell” restrictions on smartphones and other internet-enabled personal devices throughout the entire school day.
The announcement came after a roundtable hosted by the governor with a group of New York moms, kids and educators and officials from the nonprofit Common Sense Media, which delivered a letter to state legislators in support of distraction-free schools, according to a press release.
“What a radical concept: the thought that students should be there paying attention to their teachers and interacting with each other and not these all day long phenomenally destructive distractions which have now taken over children’s childhood and also the classroom environment," the governor said.
At the same time, state legislators are trying to figure out how to implement such a ban ahead of the April 1 budget deadline, according to Spectrum News NY1.
“The question is, do you give the school districts flexibility to come up with their own or just one uniform policy across the state?” Democratic State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said during a separate press conference with reporters in the State Capitol Building, the news station reported.
Democratic state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins also said legislators have been speaking to many stakeholders to figure things out.
“There are districts that have gone ahead and done different things that they feel are working, from superintendents who want a little bit of flexibility. So, we have injected that into the conversation as well. There is no doubt that we know that students will be better off if their phones are not with them and they’re able to concentrate on their lessons,” she said, according to NY1.
