Cell Phone Policy To Be Reviewed And Refined By School District 27

School District 27 Cariboo Chilcotin will be working on their new policies when it comes to cell phone

use in the classrooms.

Superintendent Chris Van Der Mark says all schools in the province have codes of conduct which covers the acceptable use of technology and the use of cell phones to a varying degree are already restricted.

He says most Districts will already be looking at what they currently have in place, it can be different school to school, classroom to classroom.

“Some folks are quite comfortable with how they’re used and will actually have kids use them to access things as part of learning but it’s also about are we really clear on whether it’s a tool or whether it’s a toy and whether it’s being used appropriately to support learning versus to distract learning.”

van der Mark says they’ll start working on looking carefully at some of their school codes of conduct which do get updated every year.

“We will be checking to see if we need to support that with more specific parameters so obviously we’ll do some work with partner groups. I think it will really be just about refining and being more deliberate with what we have so that it is clear and reflective and as required under whatever instructions do formally come down. We need to be making sure we’re on this and being thoughtful about it’s use in schools.”

He says the new policies will be in place by the new school year and they hope to have something in place either before or after the Spring Break.

School District 28 in Quesnel will also be working on their policies.