Cell Phone Restrictions
Active
22 meetings ·
2024-12-05 to 2026-10-01
New York State cell phone legislation requiring distraction-free learning policies, tracked from state advocacy through legislative debate to building-by-building rollout at CET, PVC, and CHHS with mixed reception.
Timeline (22 meetings)
Dec 5, 2024
Board of Education
thanks Anna so I will give the quick summary about our last advocacy committee meeting on November 26th and please fill in anything I might miss there were two items on our agenda that we discussed the First on regionalization and the other on the po…
Ed Riely spoke in support of the Board addressing speakers, concerns about DEI policies, and suggested that the consent agenda should be displayed more clearly.
Report: 5.2 Board Reports
Advocacy: Committee Chair Theo Oshiro stated that the commit…
Jan 9, 2025
Board of Education
yeah briefly the last two topics of conversation in the advocacy committee have been the regionalization effort which we discussed today as well as the cell phone use policy at the state level and we obviously talked regionalization today look forwar…
Ed Reilly spoke to recommend that admin/board members use microphones more effectively. He also spoke about policies regarding students and health, HS history and English departments' use of written materials, the 50th anniversary of Vietnam War, t…
Feb 13, 2025
Board of Education
good evening so tonight we are going to discuss our preliminary Revenue budget thank you you sure I can't use it okay A little safety so tonight put our agenda for this evening first we're going to review the governor's executive proposal and state a…
yeah so we held a meeting of the advocacy committee on February 11th and did several things one was to review the governor's budget which I will not go over in detail since Denise did so in her presentation but we covered a lot of the things that she…
I attended the meeting with assembly member lenberg last week the only other thing I wanted to add is that we officially the advocacy Committee just needs to highlight for the policy committee that if the cell phone legisl the cell phone piece of the…
yeah just have a couple of things oh are you done oh my my stage voice okay so I attended attended I watched online last week the nisb capital conference and I will note that the recording was sent out by Danielle raso today so I would really encoura…
Advocacy Committee: Advocacy Committee Chair Theo Oshiro reported that they met 2/11/25 and reviewed governor's budget. They are getting more info about cell phone policy, as some aspects remain unclear (e.g., how the rule applies on buses). There …
Board Trustee Sarah Carrier reported that she listened to NYSSBA capital conferences, and that a recording was sent out. The 1/30 LHEC annual legislators' forum was well attended with good discussion about governor's budget and LHEC's priorities. Up…
Mar 13, 2025
Board of Education
good evening ad I'd like to recommend to the board considering a student Club to support the Fuller Center the Fuller Center is named after the founder of aat for Humanity was Fuller and his wife they got quarter involved quarter help publicize it bu…
so we have actually not had a meeting since our February believe 12th meeting so we reported on that meeting already at the last business meeting we do have a meeting coming up on the 17th so this coming Monday and we'll report on that meeting some p…
so I would love to just remind everyone that we do have a West putut actually believe the last money TOS presentation is tomorrow you may still be able to sign up but was cutting it a little close but I did want to draw everyone's attention to the th…
Mr. Ed Riely recommended that the district consider starting a student club to support the Fuller Center (Habitat for Humanity) and that the district develop a policy regarding TikTok and cell phones. Textbooks should be examined for anti-population…
Resolution: RESOLVED: That the Board of Education hereby approves the minutes of the February 27, 2025 work session as presented.
Motion by Sarah Carrier, second by Anamika Bhatnagar.
Final Resolution: Motion Carried
Yes: Anamika Bhatnagar, Sarah …
Apr 10, 2025
Board of Education
Thanks. so March we had our last meeting on March 17th and discussed the Senate at at that point the Senate and Assembly one house budgets that had come out and reviewed the just the summary on on state aid and what the Senate and Assembly proposals …
Right. so I was able to attend the webinar on March 31st that Westp had hosted with Devorah Heitner who's the author of Growing Up in Public a discussion that largely centered around cell phones, social media our students and also the implications of…
Advocacy: Advocacy Committee Chair Theo Oshiro reported that the committee met 3/17, discussed state budgets from senate & assembly and cell phone policy updates. He asked about meetings with legislators, in that WPSBA typically puts together these m…
Board Trustee Sarah Carrier reported that she attended a webinar 3/30, sponsored by WPSBA: Growing up in Public regarding cell phones and social media. She noted that upcoming events include an EdLaw Lunch & Learn on 4/25, a NYSSBA lunchtime webinar…
May 8, 2025
Board of Education
policy. Unlike the other president, we met we met on March 26. We met on May 1st. Our next meeting is scheduled for June 2nd. policy will be dealing with a number of issues that have some immediacy some of which have been brought up for first reading…
Right. So, there's all different nuances to this that, you know, that administration will weigh in on faculty, parents, students. there are also exceptions if a device is required by the students IEP or section 504 plan or is needed for translation s…
Communication: Communication Committee Chair Sarah Carrier reported that the committee has not met since last meeting. The next meeting is to be scheduled. She thanked Assistant Superintendent Denise Harrington-Cohen, Technology/Communications Spec…
Jun 12, 2025
Board of Education
Susan Skrelja stated that she is indifferent to the contract but the Board has an obligation to explain the development of the decision process. We must use our resources and communities, (e.g., open forums) for decisions. She mentioned the phone ba…
Policy Committee Chair Neal Haber noted that revisions to this code of conduct were discussed and approved by policy committee, reviewed by council and bargaining units. Many revisions are cleaning up language, (e.g., duplication of language on pgs. …
Jul 10, 2025
Board of Education
The District has incredible potential and can return to previous splendor.
Ed Riely stated that the board has a record of messing up social media policy. The District should've had cell phone policy before state legislature made it necessary. The …
The original cellphone policy was established in 2017. LHEC is trying to get the deadline moved out.
Board Trustee Sarah Carrier noted that the LHEC met 7/8 mostly concerning this guidance. Policies should be developed with local stakeholder input,…
Aug 7, 2025
Board of Education
Ms. Teague and Board Vice President Anamika Bhatnagar attended the Croton Police event this past weekend
Report: 2.2 Hearing of the Public
Jill Anderson spoke to support the bell to bell cell phone ban. She is concerned about teacher permission e…
Some committees, activities, certain classroom activities may warrant the use of them. Master schedule has 1 lunch period -- the concern is making it an inviting place if no cell phones allowed. There are no lockers at HS which raises the question of…
Motion by Omar Mayyasi, second by Anamika Bhatnagar.
Final Resolution: Motion Carried
Yes: Anamika Bhatnagar, Neal Haber, Omar Mayyasi, Allison Samuels, Ana Teague
8. Closing of the Meeting
Procedural: 8.1 Hearing of the Public
Jill Anderson spo…
Sep 4, 2025
Board of Education
Leslie Pollak reported that the Village of Croton has endorsed a definition of IHRA and asks if the school will follow suit. She is requesting a response.
Kara Read, parent of 2, stated that she is discouraged by the cell phone policy. She asked w…
Filomena DiMarco, Student Ex-officio Trustee, reported on the following topics:
New physical changes in school -- ILC, cafeteria -- are so impressive and students are gathering there...the ILC feels like a college campus.
New Spencer Field is amazi…
Oct 9, 2025
Board of Education
Kara Read spoke to support the focused learning environment that can be achieved with bell to bell cellphone ban. She wants to ensure that the policy is effective. Students shouldn't have responsibility to manage their phones, nor should teachers. …
She asked for feedback about how the current system was decided upon and how it is monitored.
Shauna Usiak spoke to support the cell phone ban, citing evidence of positive impacts on students, and the results of the CHUFSD community survey. She fee…
The research, data and community are aligned, and the district needs to respond.
Jill Anderson, of the Croton Community Collective spoke to advocate for cellphone free classrooms, limiting technology in the classrooms, and including more real world,…
Ms. Bhatnagar couldn't attend the Village's Bicycle Pedestrian Committee, but had wonderful a conversation with 5 corners crossing guard, Chuck, in which he was commended for his work. Ms. Teague reported on the PVC Building Planning Council where th…
Nov 6, 2025
Board of Education
HS PTSA 12/9 6:30, hosted faculty lunch at CHHS, hosting breakfast for Hall of Distinguished Graduates on 11/24.
PVC PTA: next meeting on 11/17, planning upcoming events
CET PTA wrapping up bookfair, hosting movie night 11/7
CHEF Dine A Round th…
Dec 4, 2025
Board of Education
Clare Benoist spoke re: personal electronic devices. She reported that she is sad to learn how much time her young children are spending on the screen at school. She is requesting the results of a study that asked students to track screen time.
Ji…
She urged district to contribute to the program.
Annie Vallo reported that she has a child at UPK and has witnessed firsthand how important UPK is for future success. UPK should not be seen as separate from K-12 and asked for commitment from distri…
Jan 8, 2026
Board of Education
Thank you and thanks again Laura for being here and for your leadership. Shifting gears if we could to let's talk about technology for a little bit. So one of the other ongoing conversations in the district for the better part of a year or so now has…
At PVC we had this conversation with our Croton Teachers Association leadership team earlier in the week. Broadly the the feedback from the faculty is that it's going very very well. The number of distractions related to cell phone use in the buildin…
Absolutely. So I'm a senior obviously this is the first year that it's been implemented here. so in my experience we don't have our phones at all during class or anything like that. I haven't seen any students on it during class or anything like that…
I think in a good way it's not hasn't become like a war between the students and the teachers like I think it's like sort of respect thing especially like in the high school like a lot of us are 18 about to be well we are adults and we're going into …
Yeah and I think Phil said very well and I would just add that from an administrative perspective we are not seeing significant issues with students not complying. I can count on one hand the number of cell phones that I've had to take this year so f…
I also want to chime in that Neal and I had the opportunity and I know Neal may want also to say something about this to attend that panel that Dr. Tubbs was referencing and that Phil had a chance to speak at. And I think what really it was a it was …
Yeah, there are a couple of things that I think this probably is something that we might be discussing in polling, but I'm glad we're discussing it now. my takeaway from what we heard is here. And also what we heard with the panel that was like it's …
That's part of what we try to have students have that confidence to be respectful for themselves and respectful for others, and to then be able to model that behavior, including in the classroom. And so, it's much more natural much more appropriate f…
ELA Regents as Compared to NYS
English Regents Ranking within Region: 2024-25
Global Regents Scores as Compared to NYS
Global Ranking in Region
AP Exams Offered At CHHS
AP Course Enrollment 2021-2025
English AP Average Scores
AP Calculus AB/BC…
Apr 21, 2026
Board of Education
Shifting gears again to the topic of technology in our schools. Again, one of the ongoing conversations that have been a part of the system for a good deal of time now. So, you know, the board had the opportunity to spend some time with doctor Moskow…
Leslie Pollack thanked the BOE for valedictory ceremony for son Jeremy. She has a problem with equity in the district. How did the Superintendent pick community members for committees? In past years, there were roundtables for participation. Every p…
Students should have the same access to opportunities as every other student in Westchester County.
Ed Riely spoke how it was good to see students walking in town. Over past 30-40 years, public schools have promoted the idea that kids are the popula…
Commended district on cell phone policy, but it has come in too late.
A parent of a kindergartner spoke regarding what her daughter has been watching in school every single day -- videos of books read by celebrities, low-quality, high stimulation vi…
May 7, 2026
Board of Education
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just another example of students collaborating, being creative, and and, you know, working together, you know, and there's there were questions about the Internet enabled device policy. And so I wanna first thank Doctor…
Throughout the year, we have provided opportunities for staff to share best practices, including practices such as assigning slot numbers connected to attendance procedures, so cell phone compliance becomes part of attendance taking. Recently we orde…
Dan Zeliger, spoke to represent Croton Community Collective, whose goals are: 1. to keep smartphones out of childhood 2. to advocate for phone-free schools 3. to foster community culture that values free play, etc. They're not anti-tech -- it should…
May 12, 2026
CHUFSD Board of Education Candidate Forum 5/12/26
Alright. Thanks, Tara. Welcome, everybody. Tara said, I'm Laurie Schultz. I am a member of the League of Women Voters of the River Towns. As your moderator, I don't live in Croton-Harmon, so I have no stake in this race. This event is sponsored by th…
Jun 4, 2026
Board of Education
>> So I want to thank you for your work here, for coming to every meeting, staying here late at night, sharing your journey to choosing a college with us, offering your insight into what was a very difficult like first time dive into um you know, a c…
>> No, yeah. Thank you guys so much. That was so like kind and unnecessary and amazing. Thank you. So, yeah. I'm very happy to have gotten this position, to have been able to provide the insight I can. And I think it's I'm honestly really grateful th…
Jun 11, 2026
Board of Education
Right. Good evening. It's not up there. Thank you for having me here tonight to share a brief update on the internet enabled device policy at the high school as we wrap up our first year of implementation. And I'll echo what Omar said earlier about t…
And you'll hear more about kind of um what that looks like in practice and some challenges just in terms of adult presence presence and monitoring um during lunch for example, what's appropriate educational purpose and what's not. Um, so I also just …
So on the next slide, in terms of infractions, I know Ellen had briefly shared some numbers last month and these numbers are slightly updated due to being a month later and collecting a few more infractions in that month. Um, so and just as again the…
Um something to keep in mind in terms of realities of implementation um hallways and lunchrooms are not monitored by teachers and the communication when this law came out um but that the device policy was not something that teachers were expected to …
So, I think it's also really important to note and perhaps somewhat unique at at our high school compared to schools in our region. Um, but there is a genuine culture of trust here, I think, which is evidenced by our open campus [clears throat] and t…
We think that many of our students are going to eventually come up to the high school with very little reliance on cell phones if if the way things are trending nationally and locally continue. So there's sort of a a gradual implementation approach t…
I'm not a spokesperson for them. Um, but um just the idea being it is very easy to do and I'm terrible with cell phones. So the idea of just rallying together so that it's not this is the schools or the district's responsibility that it's our shared …
Um, so I'll be honest that I think some of these considerations are worrisome in terms of school culture, but they're considerations um that I think should be talked about nonetheless. Um, so some options that we can do um are to implement or assign …
>> No, just a couple of obligations. I think what Philina said is very important to consider. are members of the community who would like to see what I will call an absolute cell phone pan looking at certain research on the subject of what is the pur…
I really like that cuz I think that you know students and this goes to sort of like the do you want to have the like you know the strict control or not like really students listen to their peers right and so >> it it feels to me like having [clears t…
>> I love the idea of collaborating with parents and educating them in terms of how they can shut the phones down and take away internet access remotely. But you know what also I was thinking about is like it also is requiring like that shift and I I…
>> And I will say there's been a big change in that regard. We don't have as much of that anymore with the cell phones policy in place for sure. Um so that's been a positive definitely a positive change. Um the other thing I know parents are sometime…
Families value the flexibility and trust.
Student Ex-officio Trustee Filomena DeMarco agreed that students are more willing to pay attention in class without their phones, and they'll be less willing to comply if tighter restrictions are put in plac…
Jul 16, 2026
Board of Education
Good afternoon. Ed Riely from Truesdale Drive. I'd like to welcome a new member support, new assistant superintendent, and the superintendent for finance. This board has been interesting in that many people in the board, not have been open to evaluat…
Mr. Stephen Walker, Superintendent of Schools, not to exceed $5,000.
Denise Harrington-Cohen, Assistant Superintendent for Business, not to exceed $5,000.
Rachel DePaul, Assistant Superintendent of Pupil Personnel Services, not to exceed $2,500. …
Aug 27, 2026
Board of Education
On the question? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion carries. Moving into our first order of business, item 1.3, the president's report. So good evening, and welcome to the members of our community in the audience, not so many tonight. Hopefu…
Sounds good. Thank you. Good question. Okay. I'm happy now to turn it over to item 2.1 on our agenda, the technology reset and cell phone implementation discussion. So I'll turn it over to superintendent Walker to kick us off. Thank you. Yes, Anamika…
about where we wanna be as we begin this year. So you'll see, again, kind of the fruits, the products of all of those conversations. Thank you. Over these past few weeks, we're proud of where we are. We look forward to how this is gonna change the st…
Thank you. At the high school, our expectations for students have not changed at all in our classrooms. Just as we did last year, if parents choose to send their teens to school with a phone, students are asked to store their phones in phone cubbies …
If a student is using a cell phone in the building, the teacher, administrator, or staff member will give them a verbal warning and ask them to put it in the cubby or in the backpack if they're in a common area. And then from there, they'll make sure…
And for our civics kids, there's a host of opportunities from looking at different interest groups, power, policy, looking at the meta settlement that just took place and the huge changes that are about to come from that both from, a business perspec…
I think, for board questions because I think that am I correct in that that was our your last slide on this, guys? Yes. Okay. I wanna just first, first, I wanna say the board would like to reserve a work session with the outcome of everything that yo…
Yeah. To me, this plan seems pretty similar to what we experienced last year. I guess the main difference I'm seeing is, like, a a attitude of, like, let's really, like, adhere to these rules, which I appreciate because I think at the start of the ye…
So with those incoming ninth graders who haven't had the practice or the experience of being able to access their cell phones during the school day, you know, let's let's see if people let's see if they can model it actually for the rest of their upp…
Yeah. I think this is a lot of, really positive development. One of the questions that I had had is, like, on the slide about cell phone policy reminders. Remind yeah. Thank you. Like, you know, was that because this is a PowerPoint deck. Like, was t…
So even though this is, like, to me correct, you know, for what for for for what this moment is, by making, like, the if we're really trying to do a culture shift of of respect and understanding, like, the implications of our actions, then really loo…
That's that's great to hear because, like, also, I know orientations are long. You know? So it can be it'd be a lot of overwhelming things. So, like, break making it just succinct like that and looping together is really important. So, hopefully, eve…
Bringing us back to the thank you for that. Bringing us back to the cell phone, the the different practices we're gonna comment this year. This will bring will bring us closer to what the board policy envisioned. Are there any other aspects or any as…
There will be clarity on the very, very limited reason for asking for an exception to use your cell phone in particular. Just as reminder, we have a bring your own device policy, and students also have school issued devices that they are absolutely 1…
and we're we're thrilled to be able to to recommend this for approval by the board. It aligns directly with our one of our priorities, which is around data, security for all of our our students and our our staff and our systems. And so what this does…
He went on a walkthrough of the district with Brad Kennedy, Director of Facilities.
Health & Safety Committee: Committee Chair Brad Kennedy summarized the group walkthrough yesterday. It started at CET to check on playground progress -- equipment …
Presenters:
Ellen Moskowitz, Director of Technology and Innovation
Erica Fiorini, CHHS Interim Principal
Mark Maxam, CHHS Assistant Principal
John Bohuniek, CHHS Interim Assistant Principal
CHHS Cell Phone Policy 2026-27 Implementation Plan
Exp…
Oct 1, 2026
Board of Education
K. So following the, you know, all the tech policy and tech bans in the high school, I think we're wondering how many more students are leaving the school grounds during lunch to use their cell phone, and also how that... If they are, how that is aff…
Club day went well, more engagement by lower classmen, there's been a big increase in size of some of the clubs. Would like to examine how the extracurricular period is working for students. Spoke of upcoming SFC meetings and agendas. Big turnout in …