What does the mandate mean for K-12 education?
BY: BRINN SMITH
News Editor
Missouri’s Senate Bill 68 and all of its updates took effect on Thursday, Aug. 28, right at the beginning of the 2025 school year. The bill seeks to “create, repeal, and modify provisions relating to elementary and secondary education,” which takes form in many ways, from mandating intruder proof locks in Section 160.663 to changing the way that teacher representatives on the State Board of Education are allowed to join in Section 161.026.
The section that has the most eyes on it, however, is Section 162.207, which requires all school districts and charter schools to “adopt a written policy regarding students’ possession or use of electronic personal communication devices.”
This section outlines the policy, ensuring that, at a minimum, the policy will prohibit all students from the use of or the displaying of “electronic personal communication devices” during the entirety of the school day. This does include meal breaks, as well as breaks in between classes.
Students have already noticed the difference in their school policies upon the bill’s implementation.
“We had a ‘no phones in class’ rule, but we were allowed to have them in the hallways and at lunch,” said Lindbergh High School senior Willa Reith. “But even then, it was more so a teacher-by-teacher basis, some teachers didn’t care as much.”
The students have also commented on how different it is not being able to have phones at lunch and on breaks.
“Not being able to have that at lunch and in the hallways has been a big adjustment,” Reith said. “I guess that the point of it is to give people more incentive to do other things than look at their phones during lunch.”
It’s not just students the mandate is affecting. Teachers have also commented on the policy to students during class and are sometimes showing support by applying the same rules to themselves.
“Some of my teachers have talked about it and I’ve noticed that a lot of my teachers are saying things like ‘Oh you guys have to do it, I’m going to try to do it too.’” Reith said. “I’ve had a couple teachers say that it [the policy] is a bit excessive.”
The policy doesn’t expire until Aug. 28, 2032.
