Starting next school year, the Clark County School District (CCSD) will require students in middle and high school to place their cellphones in non-locking, signal-blocking pouches, interim Superintendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell announced during a Tuesday press conference. 

The district is already piloting the pouches at 10 percent of schools in these grade levels, including at Green Valley High School in Henderson. At that school, the pouched phones are kept in a safe location near their student owners, who can use them during lunch and breaks but not during class, according to the school’s principal. 

Larsen-Mitchell said the new policy is meant to eliminate distractions while learning. She said students will still have access to their phones during emergency situations, and that the district is leaving it up to elementary schools to decide whether they want to implement the pouches. 

“Some of them experience high usage of cellphones, others do not,” Larsen-Mitchell said about the lower grades. 

CCSD provides students with Chromebooks that they can use for school assignments. 

The district’s cell phone policy comes a year after Florida passed a state law banning student cellphone usage in classrooms. Other states, including Vermont and Kansas, are looking to follow suit. 

CCSD will also be requiring students in grades 6-12 to wear an ID badge as some school sites are already doing. Larsen-Mitchell said the district won’t be requiring clear backpacks next school year, a measure that was considered last year to address school safety.