In October, Governor Tony Evers signed Act 42 into law, requiring all Wisconsin schools to adopt some form of a cell phone ban during instructional time by July 1st, 2026.
The Madison school board’s current draft would implement an “away all day” policy for grades K-8 and an “off and away” policy for high schoolers. This would mean that in elementary and middle schools, phones would be either locked in a school designated area or kept in an out of reach location for the entirety of the school day.
In high schools, the policy would allow students to keep their phones with them throughout the day, with the ability to use phones during passing periods and lunch, just not during “instructional time,” meaning classes, assemblies, field trips, and scheduled labs…