Data collected on district policies regarding students’ use of personal devices during the school day was presented to members of the Kansas State Board of Education during their monthly meeting in Topeka this week. 

Kansas State Department of Education staff told board members 25 states have enacted laws or policies to ban or limit cellphones in classrooms and four states have adopted policies encouraging districts to adopt procedures to address students’ use of personal devices at school. Three states require districts to adopt policies, but don’t specify what the policy must say. 

In Dec. 2024, board members accepted the Blue-Ribbon Taskforce on Student Screen Time’s recommendations for districts to consider when creating or modifying their policies around student use of personal digital devices. 

During the board’s meeting, KSDE staff also presented data from a survey in June of Kansas superintendents on various aspects of their districts’ student personal device usage policies. They said the response rate on the survey was about 90%.  

According to the survey, 34.1% of districts indicated they have had a personal electronic device policy in place for more than five years. The second longest rate was 20.8% for one year. Nearly 47% of districts say their policies vary by grade level while 26.3% indicated each school has its own policy. Another 77.8% said their high school students may use personal devices during passing periods or lunch, and 66.5% said their district has a bell-to-bell ban where students aren’t permitted to use personal devices at any time during the school day. 

Other notable survey results include 57% of districts say they aren’t considering changes to their personal electronic device policies during the upcoming school year while 29% say they are considering changes. 

The State Board adopted the following recommendations as part of its fiscal year 2027 (2026-27 school year) budget recommendations for the 2026 legislative session: 

• The adoption of the consensus estimates for state foundation aid, supplemental state aid, capital improvement state aid and capital outlay state aid. 
• Request an enhancement to fund special education state aid at 80% of excess costs.  
• $1.3 million for the mentor teacher program 
• $1.8 million for educator professional development  
• $360,000 for National Board Certification   
• $15 million for safe and secure schools grants  
• $500,000 for E-rate infrastructure match 
• $148,262 to cover the increase in state office rent 
• $7,532 to cover the cost of Military Interstate Children’s Compact Commission (MIC3) dues increases 
• $126,000 to bring state board member compensation in line with legislative pay 
• $95,920 to replace funding required to support school districts with the E-rate process 

Board members also heard a three-part presentation on the work done by more than 140 Kansas educators to set cut scores for the new spring 2025 state assessments in English, math and science.   

Over the course of the board’s two-day meeting, information was presented by KSDE staff, representatives of Assessment Technology Solutions (ATS) at the Assessment and Achievement Institute (AAI) at the University of Kansas, members of the Kansas Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), and the Kansas Assessment Advisory Council (KAAC).  

The board will vote in August on the final cut scores for the spring assessments. They are also scheduled to vote next month on graduation standards that are part of the second iteration of the Kansas Education System Accreditation, known as KESA 2.0. 

In other business, board members took the following action:  

• Approved enhancements to the Registered Teacher Apprenticeship Program (RTAP) that include tracks for graduate degrees and youth apprentices and approved MeadowLARK grant funds from the Kansas Office of Registered Apprenticeship to operate the RTAP.  
• Approved cut scores for regenerated licensure tests for early childhood education foundational knowledge and content and middle school social studies. These tests and cut scores go into effect on Sept. 1.   
• Approved career and technical education cluster review recommendations.  
• Approved Evaluation Review Committee recommendations for higher education accreditation/program approvals.  

Board members also received an update on  the Kansas Math Project, heard a presentation on the definition of a persistently dangerous school and discussed their board goals.  

The State Board’s next monthly meeting will be August 12-13, in the first floor board room of the Landon State Office Building, 900 S.W. Jackson, in Topeka.