Governor’s call for school cellphone ban has a familiar ring to it in Olympia

This article was originally published by Washington State Standard.

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson made a splashy announcement earlier this month that he would back legislation to ban student cellphone use from the first bell of the day to the last in public schools. 

But the idea is not a new one in the Legislature. 

The state superintendent and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have tried, unsuccessfully, to implement a policy like this for the past three years. A question now is whether Ferguson putting his political weight behind legislation will make a difference.

State Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, sponsored a bill this year to ban cellphones in schools. It was watered down to call for a study from the superintendent’s office, with a deadline to submit policy recommendations by December 2027.

Then, by 2030, the bill says, the Legislature will use that information to enable school districts “to implement a bell-to-bell cellphone policy that is tailored to the needs of their community.” School districts already have that ability, Liias pointed out.  

“What we did this year was the — literally the bare minimum,” Liias said. “I’m excited that it helped catalyze attention to the issue and that now we’re hopefully poised to join, you know, dozens of states to go even further with evidence-based policy.” 

Liias said he’s “delighted” that Ferguson and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal are pushing to get a statewide ban implemented sooner. 

In 2024, Reykdal challenged school districts to enact policies restricting cellphone use ahead of the 2025-2026 school year. After his office released guidance on how to implement such measures, about 75% of districts complied. 

But Reykdal has concerns that a patchwork approach is emerging.

“It’s time to have a statewide policy,” Reykdal told the public affairs network TVW in April. “You can’t have two neighboring districts with totally different policies and not see the difference.” 

At least 29 other states have already implemented a form of bell-to-bell bans on phone use, according to Education Week. One national report gave Washington an F grade for its efforts in this area, or lack thereof. Supporters of the bans see them as a way to cut down on distractions in the classroom and to help improve students’ mental health.

Reykdal has suggested the state is falling behind and joined the governor last week, endorsing legislation to set a statewide “away for the day” policy for cellphones in schools.  

State Rep. Stephanie McClintock, R-Battle Ground, has been trying to ban cellphones in schools for the last three legislative sessions. She said she can’t help but wonder if her bills didn’t become law because she’s a Republican in the Democrat-dominated Legislature.

“We don’t need more studies on the negative effects of cellphone use in our public schools. We need to act,” McClintock, a former Battle Ground school board member, said in a statement earlier this year.

McClintock’s most recent bill did not receive a hearing in the House Education Committee last year or this year, the first step in passing this type of legislation. In 2024, the bill advanced out of the committee but stalled in House Appropriations.

The bill would have required the state superintendent’s office to relay cellphone banning recommendations to the Washington State School Directors’ Association, which would then develop a statewide model policy. 

Schools would have been required to adopt a policy ahead of the 2026-2027 school year, with the option to tailor it to the needs of their specific school district. 

McClintock said in an interview “it’s frustrating” that a concept now backed by the Democratic governor didn’t have bipartisan support when she introduced it. 

“Being on a school board, what I thought of every time we discussed a policy: what is best for kids? And I wish we could take that approach,” she said. “If everyone in that committee and in the Legislature took that approach, then this would have happened a long time ago.”

House Education Committee Chair Sharon Tomiko Santos, D-Seattle, chose not to give McClintock’s bill a hearing because school districts “don’t need special legislation” from the state to ban cellphones. They have that power already, she said. 

“That’s something that has to be done at the local level,” Tomiko Santos said. “We need to wait for the report to come back that was embedded in legislation sponsored by Senator Liias. I think that it’s a little early to do something before we get to that study.”

Rep. Skyler Rude, ranking member of the House Education Committee, said he did his best to advocate for the passage of McClintock’s bill with the committee chair. He’s unsure if the governor’s support will persuade committee members to reconsider. 

“It seems like a no-brainer move to me,” said Rude, R-Walla Walla. He described cellphone restrictions in schools as a low-cost way to improve academic performance.

Santos declined to comment on the prospects of a future bill backed by the governor to ban cellphone use because the details aren’t hashed out yet. 

Over the summer, Ferguson will travel across the state to meet with students, teachers and other stakeholders to develop a detailed proposal for the ban. He plans to prefile the governor-requested bill on Dec. 7, and wants to implement the policy next September. 

He recently sent a campaign email to supporters, touting the phone ban as one of his legislative priorities and asking them to sign a petition supporting the policy.

“Science supports a phone-free school environment. No single policy can solve every challenge in education, but this one will make a big difference in our students’ social and academic engagement,” he said last week. “I won’t let Washington be the last state in the nation to step up for our kids.”