The Dallas Independent School District Board of Trustees approved a new cellphone ban, which will take effect this fall.
The decision comes in response to House Bill 1481, which requires all school districts and open-enrollment charter schools to adopt policies prohibiting the use of personal communication devices during the school day on school property.
Previously, such policies were optional and left to the discretion of individual districts. However, with the new mandate in place, Dallas ISD — which had already been considering ways to curb cellphone use in classrooms — moved quickly to align with the law…