Bill Text: WV HB2677 | 2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: To prohibit cell phone possession and usage by students during instructional time in grades K-12.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 8-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2025-02-20 - To House Education [HB2677 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2025-HB2677-Introduced.html
WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE
2025 REGULAR SESSION
Introduced
House Bill 2677
By Delegates Gearheart, D.Smith, Hornby, Ellington, Brooks, Funkhouser, Drennan, and Ridenour
[Introduced February 20, 2025; referred to the Committee on Education]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §18-2-46, relating to providing for state board and county board policies to prohibit the use of cell phones during instructional times with provisions of exception and enforcement.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ARTICLE 2. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-2-46. Requirement for policy on prohibition of student cell phone use during instructional time; local adoption.
(a) The state board shall develop, adopt, and distribute to each county school board a model policy whereby public elementary and secondary school students are prohibited from possessing or using personal cell phones or other personal handheld communication devices during instructional time at school. In developing and adopting such model policy, the state board shall seek to balance the interests of students' academic achievement, cognitive development, safety, and general well-being and may include appropriate exceptions in extraordinary circumstances such as emergency situations or situations involving the need to contact the student's parents.
(b) Each county board shall develop and adopt a policy that is consistent with the model policy adopted by the state board pursuant to subsection (a).
(c) Enforcement of this section shall be up to the county board.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide for state board and county board policy to prohibit the use of cell phones during instructional times with provisions of exception and enforcement.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
