AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) – Texas Governor Greg Abbott visited Amarillo on Friday and ceremonially signed legislation passed during the recent legislative session to restrict the use of phones in schools, which was authored and championed by local Texas State Representative Caroline Fairly.
The governor’s office said Abbott will visit AmTech Career Academy on Friday afternoon for the bill signing and will be joined by several other representatives and state and local officials, including:
- Texas State Representative Caroline Fairly of Amarillo;
- Texas State House of Representatives Speaker Dustin Burrows of Lubbock;
- Texas State Representative Jared Patterson of Frisco;
- Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock;
- Amarillo Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Deidre Parish; and
- Amarillo High School Teacher Mellessa Denny.
House Bill 1481 will be in effect during the 2025-2026 school year for public schools and open-enrollment charter schools. As noted in previous reports, schools and districts will be required to create policies to either store students’ cell phones and personal communications devices (tablets, smartwatches, radios, pagers, etc.) during the school day or ban them on campus.
“So we’re given a level of flexibility to Amarillo ISD to be able to make sure that they’re going to be able to maintain policies that keep phones out of the hands of students during instruction time, but also knowing that certain parents will have needs, certain students will have needs and the school may have certain needs,” Gov. Abbott said…