Oklahoma Senate Bill 139 would prohibit cell phone use in schools from “bell to bell” for one year and then allow districts to develop their own policies. Some states have already put similar bans in place. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2023 found almost three-fourths of educators said that cell phone use in schools was a significant distraction to learning. The Frontier’s Executive Editor Dylan Goforth spoke with SB 139’s author, Sen. Ally Seifried, R-Claremore, about how she got interested in the issue and how hopes her legislation will help schools.
The Frontier: Tell us a little bit about your bill, what it does and what it doesn’t do, and sort of how you got interested in this topic.
Sen. Seifried: It’s such an easy thing to say, that we should remove cell phones from classrooms. But the Legislature has to figure out how to do it, and we all have differing opinions. I have been on this issue since 2023 so I’m entering my almost second full year working on this, and I’ve changed my mind on that about four or five times myself.
I started this journey in a really unlikely place. I was hosting my first interim study. I was trying to figure out what was going on with our teacher pipeline. And I had one of my amazing teachers that I met door-knocking, and I just really rely on her a lot. She shared about what it was like being in a classroom, day in and day out, and just how difficult it is to try to manage your class, and to try to manage cell phones while trying to educate kids. And so I was thinking, if she’s struggling with that, then, then it has to be really what everyone else is dealing with, too.
And then a couple weeks later, I was able to go to an education conference, which was really, really great. And we heard from someone named Jonathan Haidt, an author who wrote a book about cell phone use among children called “The Anxious Generation.” So I got to hear from him in November 2023 and that lunch was also very heavy. I was sitting next to, I think Senator (Adam) Pugh is at that table as well. And then representative Chad Caldwell, I leaned over to him, and I said, Let’s do this. And so three of us have really been working on that since then.
The Frontier: I saw in that bill that it would prohibit the use of cell phones in the schools for one year, and then after that, the schools could sort of come up with their own guidelines or their own policies. And you said that you felt like after one year, they would probably all agree that it was a good thing, and they would keep doing it. What have you seen in other states that have enacted a bell-to-bell cell phone prohibition?
Sen. Seifried: You know, it’s still so new that we don’t have the data for a full year. But we have anecdotal data across districts. I like to share about how there was one teacher who said she heard laughter in the hallways again. (The students) are actually looking each other in the eyes and doing things that you would think kids are doing again.
I went the bell to bell route in large part because of how I started, which was trying to help teachers and trying to make sure that they don’t have the burnout I’ve observed and watched that if it’s just implemented during the class time, the enforcement of that really falls on teachers. Students are obviously number one. We want them to have a great learning environment. We want them to be able to focus and just be kids and learn. But then also we don’t want teachers to be the ones having to police this.
We’re seeing more and more data about the fragmentation of our attention spans that kids can’t focus and so of course, I’m talking about K through 12, but I’ve really started talking about this when I’m giving updates to the Chamber of Commerce or workforce, because these kids will be their employees, and we want them to be able to have really great conflict resolution skills, social skills, be able to think through a problem.
The Frontier: I’m glad you kind of touched on that, because I was going to bring it up. It goes so far beyond, you know, just looking at test scores or quizzes. It does go beyond just, hey, we want you to have better test scores. It really goes into interpersonal relationships. And, like you said, conflict management and things that you have to have your head up and your eyes open to learn how to do.
Sen. Seifried: Yeah, you know, a lot of people talk about what happens when you have your phone and your phone is your whole world. That phone is curated exactly how you want, whether that’s a social media algorithm or your friends. And so, of course, it’s focused on you. And then when you go out into the real world, and suddenly you have to deal with people who aren’t exclusively focused on you.
I’m focused on education and academic outcomes, but I also want our Oklahomans to have a really solid foundation and be good humans. I think that ultimately my goal in education is, how can we have well-rounded individuals who are thoughtful, who are adaptable, who are flexible?
The Frontier: I saw a headline about the version of the bill that passed, saying the version that was passed was watered down, and I wondered if you would talk to me about your bill and what changed from the time you started working on the language to the bill that eventually the Senate passed.
Sen. Seifried: Yeah, I saw that headline. I thought it was really misleading. I also didn’t really appreciate it. As someone who’s been working on this for two years, I think your job as a Legislator is always to get the most you can while also getting the most consensus. And so we heard from local board members, to parents, to superintendents, asking us to please take this responsibility from them. To take care of it at the state level. But then we have legislators who said it was a local control issue, and they wouldn’t vote for it because it took power away from the local school boards. And so I really had to thread that needle.
Frontier: I was interested in the adjustments you talked about. And one of the things that caught my attention was that you have districts handling it at the district level after that first year, and being able to kind of write their own policies at that point. I can see it being a thing where the size of the school, the location of the school, the makeup of the student body, could all have an impact on what is most beneficial.
Sen. Seifried: Yes, absolutely. My fear with the House bill, candidly, and again, I’m the Senate author of that, and if that’s the one that passes, that’ll be great. It allows for an opt out. And so I could see a situation where schools would just opt out automatically in the first year, and maybe they would do the ban just during instructional time.
We’re 49th in education. And so I think we should be doing everything we can. I think there really is no time for anything less than what we know is the very, very best. I just think by having one year where every student across Oklahoma has the same learning environment will really give a lot of districts the ability to learn.
Frontier: Do you know how it would be handled? I know you said that the schools are supportive and the teachers don’t necessarily want to be the phone cops. And I’ve seen that kind of complaint elsewhere that in other states that have passed this or are at least discussing it, that teachers don’t want that to be their responsibility.
Sen. Seifried: I’m going to let them decide. I really tried to offer as much flexibility as possible. I defined what a cell phone was. We included smartwatches. We said bell to bell. But then how they decide to do it is up to them. Do they check it in at the first you know, the front office? Are there pouches? Are there phone lockers? Whatever they want. I felt like if they were empowered to make as many decisions as possible, we would have more longevity, and then it would be more successful.
Frontier: The only other question that I had, I am assuming this bill would only apply to the state’s public schools. I know the lines are sort of blurred now a little bit with private schools being able to receive some state money from vouchers, but this would only apply to public school districts?
Sen. Seifried: Yes, that’s correct.
For further discussion on Seifried’s proposed cell phone ban, listen to the podcast.
