Highland Park High School will require students to stow away phones during class, use district devices come fall

Come this fall, students in Highland Park and Deerfield high schools will be barred from accessing their cellphones during class time, a slated update to the school district’s student handbook shows. 

The Township High School District 113 Board of Education provided a first reading to a number of updated district policies on June 10, including a new “No Cell, Bell to Bell” procedure that will require students to silence their phones and store them in designated storage areas during instructional periods. 

Once formally approved by the School Board, the policy will go into effect for the upcoming 2025-’26 school year. D113 students previously were only required to keep phones silenced and out of sight during regular instructional periods. 

Students may still use their phones before and after school, during passing periods and at lunch, a June 16 letter to D113 families outlined. Students will otherwise be expected to give up their cellphones if they don’t have outside permission from a staff member, individualized education program or 504 plan. 

The district spent the past year collecting “instrumental” information from stakeholder surveys, focus groups, planning meetings, research and policy reviews in order to shape D113’s evolving stance on cell phones, the administrative letter to families said. 

The proposed update to D113’s cellphone rules also comes as the district is phasing in a policy modification that will require all students to use district-issued Google Chromebook laptops, instead of their own personal devices, during class. 

D113 first began providing Chromebook laptops to students in 2014 alongside a $100 technology fee, but students were not required to use the computers and could rely on their own electronic devices instead. Before 2014, D113’s policy was for students to bring their personal laptops or iPads to school. 

But starting in the upcoming 2025-’26 school year, all ninth- and 10th-graders will be required to use Chromebooks during class. 

Current 11th- and 12th-grade students may continue to use their own personal laptops or iPads next year granted they obtain a digital authentication certificate, but all D113 students will be required to use the Chromebooks starting in the 2026-’27 school year. 

According to a June 10 D113 presentation on the policy, the change is necessary to enhance the school district’s cyber-security, as well as provide the administration firmer controls over web browsing and greater awareness of students’ online habits.

D113 is updating many of its policies — including those governing bus conduct, medicine administration, workplace harassment, teen dating violence and more — after the Policy Reference Education Subscription Service issued various recommended revisions to the district in April. 

All D113 families and staff will receive more information regarding the changes prior to the upcoming fall and throughout the school-year, the administration letter said.

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