Wisconsin’s mobile phone ban during instructional time took effect on July 1, but several Fox Cities districts were already enforcing similar limits before the state rule arrived. Students in Appleton, Hortonville, Kaukauna, Kimberly, Little Chute, Menasha and Neenah are now under a statewide baseline that mostly matches local practice.
Rebecca Loroff of NETWORK-Wisconsin reported the change and the district policies, including rules that reach beyond phones to other personal electronic devices.
Appleton, Hortonville, Kaukauna
In Appleton, kindergarten through eighth-grade students have a bell-to-bell ban on all personal communication devices, while high school students cannot use devices during instructional time. In Hortonville, K-8 students must keep personal communication devices in lockers and backpacks during the school day, and high school students must keep devices powered off and out of sight during class.
In Kaukauna, students in grades five through 12 are under an instructional-time ban, fifth- through eighth-grade students also cannot use devices during lunch, and K-5 students cannot use personal devices during the school day.
Kimberly, Little Chute and Menasha
In Kimberly, high school students may have cell phones but cannot use them during instructional time, and devices must be powered completely off and stored out of sight during class. In Little Chute and Menasha, K-8 students have a bell-to-bell ban, while high school students are banned from using devices during instructional time.
That makes the state law a floor, not the strictest rule in the Fox Cities. Some districts already require students to leave devices off or out of reach for the whole day, which goes farther than Wisconsin’s instructional-time standard.
Neenah and Wisconsin
In Neenah, high school students cannot use personal electronic devices during instructional time and must keep them out of sight in class, while K-8 students must completely power off devices and store them in assigned hall lockers or other authorized areas during school hours. Wisconsin’s law also allows school-issued devices, emergency situations or perceived threats, devices used as part of an individualized education plan or 504 plan, and authorized use by a teacher.
For families, the practical question is not whether phones are banned, but which device rules apply at a child’s grade level and whether a district already goes beyond the state baseline. Rebecca Loroff can be reached at [email protected].
