What's at stake?
Students can keep their phones in their backpacks, but must turn them off during class.
The FUSD Board of Education approved a new districtwide phone policy without discussion on Wednesday, the first in over two decades, limiting phone use in classrooms and giving schools the power to enact even stricter rules.
Wednesday’s decision will be made effective on July 1. District Chief Academic Officer Carlos Castillo said the policy will mostly impact schools with looser phone policies.
“The school can go more strict, they just can’t go more lax,” Castillo said in an interview on Wednesday.
Now all schools and all students must follow the basic restrictions set by the new policy, which notes that mobile communication devices must be off during instructional times. Exceptions include if they are utilized in class activities, in case of emergencies, if needed for student health and for individualized education programs.
Additionally, smart watches, tablets and any digital texting devices that could be disruptive to student instructional time are also prohibited.
For schools like Bullard or Hoover High, which utilize stricter phone policies in classrooms, Castillo said the new policy wouldn’t change much.
Castillo added that students can still keep their phones in their backpacks or pockets under the new policy. Moreover, they are still allowed by the new policy to use their phones between classes and during breaks and lunch.
He also said that it’s up to schools now to align their phone rules with the districtwide policy if they haven’t already.
Ambra O’Connor, chief of staff for the office of the superintendent, took the lead in gathering feedback for the drafting of the new policy.
“We did have an existing policy,” O’Connor told Fresnoland in a Wednesday interview. “It was very loose and it caused issues, not only for students, but also for teachers, because it really left it up to the discretion of the teacher.”
O’Connor explained that, in the early fall of 2025, she surveyed schools to measure which ones were enforcing the previous policy and which ones had stricter rules on site. She said half relied on the existing policy, prompting her and district staff to draft a new policy that set consistent limitations across all schools.
O’Connor said feedback from students and families indicated a preference for fewer restrictions on phones.
“Overwhelmingly, students did not want a blanket restriction, and we found that to be true in subsequent surveys,” O’Connor said.
“We put out a survey in November and that was to students, families, teachers, school site administrators, and we heard the same; there’s a lot of concern around safety,” she added.
In the end, O’Connor said, community outreach efforts from last fall up until late January led to the creation of a policy that didn’t completely restrict phone usage in schools.
The policy was created to reflect AB 3216, a state law requiring districts, offices of education and charter schools to adopt a phone policy that restricts or prohibits the use of smartphones at school sites by July 1. Educational agencies must also update their policy every five years.
For Castillo, the current obstacle for the new policy’s enforcement is who’s going to be doing the enforcing. Castillo noted that, while principals and administrators can create more restrictive policies at their schools, it still falls on teachers to consistently enforce the policy to ensure students follow it.
Schools could theoretically make stricter phone policies — like Bullard High School’s requirement for students to keep their phones in pouches all day long. However, Castillo said that the next step would be no phones at all, which he added would not be feasible.
Instead, Castillo said the new restrictions to phone and device use during instructional time can allow students to learn the proper time, place and manner to use their devices.
“That’s the best thing we can all do for our generations coming, is know how and when and the etiquette and what’s good for the child, because they’re going to live with this their whole lives,” Castillo said.
At Hoover High, student English proficiency in the Smart Balanced tests jumped up 21.7% in a single year, to a proficiency rate of 57.1% in 2024-25. The boost in scores came after sweeping policy changes at the school, including a stricter phone policy in 2023-24.
