Students in secondary schools in the Kingston City School District (KCSD) will begin the 2024-25 academic year in a cell-phone-free learning environment.
District officials detailed their plans during a meeting of the board of education held on Wednesday, May 22, with assistant superintendent for secondary and pupil personnel services Lynette Williams leading the presentation. The goal is to increase student engagement, improve social and emotional health and to limit distractions in a safe and student-centered educational environment.
“We want to limit distractions in a safe and student-centered environment by creating this cell-phone-free environment, which is really something that we already encourage in our schools,” Williams said. “We want to make sure that our young people are able to increase their critical thinking skills, to collaborate with one another, to increase conversational skills with themselves and with their educators, and to rely more on the technology that we provide such as our Chromebooks in the classroom, and how to use technology ethically and in a way to promote their learning.”
Williams cited a December 2021 study published in the Journal of Adolescence which found that among adolescents between the ages of 11-15 there was a correlation between social media use and poorer sleep quality, anxiety and depression. Using data from the worldwide Programme for International Student Assessment, the study further found that while loneliness remained relatively flat in studies conducted between 2000-2012, in the next six years nearly twice as many teenagers displayed elevated levels of school loneliness, which is claimed to be a predictor of depression and mental health issues. Critically, the study was conducted before the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, which experts believe may have worsened those trends.
While the district already encourages a cell-phone-free learning environment, the KCSD will move into ensuring it with the introduction of Yondr, a company that designs proprietary sealable pouches to restrict access to cell phones at everything from concerts to corporate environments to classrooms. Chances are, if you’ve been to a show at UPAC by comedians like John Mulaney, Kevin Hart, or Pete Davidson, you’re already familiar with Yondr.
Students at Kingston High School and both J. Watson Bailey and M. Clifford Miller middle schools will be given a Yondr pouch at the start of the school year, which they will bring with them to school. Upon arrival they will unlock their pouch using a Yondr unlocking base, insert their phone, then re-lock the pouch. They will carry the pouch with them during the school day, and can unlock it at the end of the school day.
Each of the three schools using the Yondr system will have delineated spaces in administrative and nurses’ offices where they can go to unlock their phones if they need to contact their parents or guardians. Students who use their phones for medical reasons will have different pouches allowing them access when needed.
“There’s not a point in time where a student will be unable to access their phone if they need to,” Williams said. “The goal really is just to keep the distractions limited in an academic space.”
The district plans to provide students with pouches when they receive their schedules in late August, though a rollout timeline shows they may start being used during summer school programs.
Yondr pouches will be provided to students free of charge, but replacement pouches will cost $20. If students are seen with phones outside of their pouches during school, their phones will be confiscated and disciplinary procedures could follow.
According to district officials, over 1,200 schools across the country are cell-phone-free, with over 200 in New York City alone. Among the other schools in New York State are Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, and Middletown High School, both of which have significantly different demographics. Bethlehem High has a student population that is 84 percent white, 8 percent Asian, 3 percent black, and 3 percent Latinx, with roughly 15 percent of the student body economically disadvantaged. Middletown’s student population is 59 percent Latinx, 25 percent black, 11 percent white, and 3 percent Asian, with around 72 percent of its students economically disadvantaged. Both schools use the Yondr system, and both have seen their graduation rates among all cohorts skyrocket, with Bethlehem’s at 95 percent and Middletown’s 92 percent.
According to Superintendent Paul Padalino, the cost to the district to get Yondr up and running is around $60,000.
Trustees were largely supportive of the initiative, with questions and concerns largely focused on the logistics of implementing and maintaining a cell-phone-free environment when it’s been fairly commonplace for some time for students to be able to directly communicate with their parents during the school day.
Between now and the beginning of the 2024-25 school year, district officials are planning a series of communications outreaches to the community. Changes to the code of conduct are also in the works, as are strategies to improve logistical communications between schools and parents, such as the cancellation of late buses.
Join the family! 
