An article by Education Week describes how Lincoln Public Schools, back in 2022, was facing two ongoing issues: Students using their phones during class and students getting a hall pass only to meander and waste time outside of class.
The solution decided on by school officials was to prohibit phone usage during class, which eliminated that common problem, and to use digital pass technology that allows a student to step outside the classroom with the teacher’s permission.
Laura Derrendinger, an ambassador with family advocacy group ScreenStrong, says she agrees with the policy to put the phones away but is concerned about monitoring a student’s movement.
“What I can say," she tells AFN, "is the idea of digitally monitoring students when they need to leave the classroom, and then come back, does run the risk to invade student data privacy.”
Ed Week reports feedback from teachers has been positive because classroom attendance improved, and fewer students were getting in trouble outside the classroom, because of the hall pass monitoring.
