The Shawnee Mission School District has finalized its new policy for student cellphones personal electronic devices to meet state law ahead of the school year.

The Shawnee Mission Board of Education did a first read of the policy in June, as recommended by the policy review committee composed of board members Heather Ousley, Jessica Hembree and David Westbrook. It was largely unchanged by its final approval July 20. 

“What you see before you,” Superintendent Michael Schumacher said to the board last month, “is our best effort to comply with the law, meet the needs of our students and families, limit the burden to our staff and to have a policy that will be able to be put into practice with fidelity.

The new policy states that:

• students are prohibited from using or accessing personal electronic communication devices during the school day,
• and students must store their devices in an inaccessible location during the school day, such as at home, in the student’s vehicle, or in a school-issued locker or assigned cubby.

The law does permit phones to be stored in vehicles, even on school property.

Leaving phones in vehicles has faced some criticism from parents online. Extreme temperatures can damage iPhones and Androids, like shortening their battery life and warping internal components.

Meanwhile, some parents say the policy is not strict enough.

Kim Whitman, a Shawnee Mission parent and co-founder of the Phone-Free Schools Movement, spoke against the newly approved personal electronic device policy during public comment on July 20.

“[The board’s policy review committee] wanted to follow the law, which I appreciate, but then they took a misstep by deciding to allow students to store their phones in school-issued lockers or cubbies,” Whitman said. “This might appease a lot of parents, but now you aren’t following the law.”

The law requires students to turn off their devices and store them in a location not on the student’s person and inaccessible during the school day. Exceptions include medically necessary devices approved by a doctor, and devices required for implementation of students’ 504 or individualized education plans.

“We understand that there is a wide range of opinions and preferences specific to student access to personal electronic devices during the school day,” said Jake Potter, SMSD chief communications officer. “However, the Kansas Legislature passed House Bill 2299, which requires that all Kansas school districts and accredited nonpublic schools make necessary policy adjustments for the 26-27 school year in order to comply with state law.”

School officials had worked on the district’s own version of a phone ban for months, finalizing it early in 2025, only to have it superseded by the Kansas Legislature. The district’s new policy would have set different phone usage rules by grade level. At middle and high school levels, phones could have been stored in lockers and accessed during passing periods.

The new Kansas law affects all grade levels evenly and prohibits accessibility during passing periods.

For students in violation of SMSD’s new policy, disciplinary actions include, but are not limited to:

• confiscation of the device through the end of the school day, 
• referral to administration for determination of appropriate consequence, 
• parental notification, 
• or other appropriate disciplinary response, including suspension and/or expulsion from school.

“We have baseline data, tracking implementation of cell phone policy,” board member Mary Sinclair said during the July 20 meeting. “So, we’ll be able to better understand the impact of and can make adjustments if we need to, within the confines of the new state statute.”

Whitman said she wants the district to more strictly follow the law by prohibiting students from storing their phones in lockers, citing benefits she learned from districts with similar bans. 

In her discussions with those districts, she found that:

• teachers in those schools were willing to oversee storing phones if it meant not dealing with them throughout the day,

• implementation doesn’t have to cost exorbitant amounts of money,
• and there’s a variety of benefits, including improved focus, with strict implementation.

“Stop focusing on half measures to partially meet the law,” Whitman said, “and instead focus on what’s best for the students and their education.”