Not sure how a policy could be effectively enacted to take cell phones away from kids in dorms. It’s really up to roommates to respect one another’s need for peace and quiet. Some schools ask that phones be placed in the dorm hallway during study hall, but with many apps and websites requiring cell phone 2 factor authentication, they are hard to do without. As for your comment “and they refuse to take them away at night”, I just can’t see it happening.
The biggest dorm nuisances we’ve seen are kids studying with lights on until 3-4 am, and those gaming late with overseas buddies.
Hotchkiss’s newly announced policy, time will tell if it actually holds:
In recognition of the growing body of information indicating that excessive use of social media is harmful to the mental health of adolescents, smartphone use on campus will be prohibited at the following times/in the following spaces:
During scheduled academic classes unless specifically requested by the instructor;
During community gatherings in Chapel, Walker Auditorium, and Elfers Hall unless specifically requested by a speaker or performer; and
It will be interesting to see how they monitor cell phone usage in the dining hall at Hotchkiss! Per my HK student, they are all on their phones during meal times - I love that they won’t have them there so they maybe can actually talk to one another, but can’t imagine how that will be monitored… more adult supervision? Honor system? Does anyone know of another boarding school with this policy for their dining hall?
Verizon has a smart family app for parent and a companion child app for child phone. This helps you monitor the location, speed of driving and you have have limits on apps, calling hours and have always enabled contacts which they can reach during emergencies.
I think they tried to use a specific app the previous year and now say “install parental controls”. Not sure if the app was a disaster or if kids figured out how to bypass it.
If you have Verizon, their parental controls will let you limit what hours they can use their phone and even turn their phone off. I think my kids did tell me that they could still use apps though. I believe Google and Apple have parental controls that let you either limit apps or see which ones they’ve used.
Perhaps an honest (and frank) conversation about healthy cell phone use, engagement, and expectations is important. We also talked about using free time well.
What are your kid’s current cell phone habits? S23 went in with good habits and maintained those habits at school. He was just too busy both academically and socially to spend vast amounts of time on his phone. As someone that pushed himself both academically and athletically, he also realized how important sleep is.
Kids that came with that were already spending hours gaming and on social media seemed to (unfortunately) keep up those habits. And, yes, it was a problem. Some did not return, but I question if those were kids that were really driving the process to begin with or if their parents thought boarding school would somehow solve the problem.
Is this currently a problem at home? If so, I wouldn’t wait until enrolling to try to put limits on it. If not, I’d encourage discussions about teens and cell phone use and what your child feels that will look like a school.
I have a DD at Mercersburg and they are not allowed to use their phones anywhere but student center or dorm room (being caught on your phone for any reason in any other location/anytime is a demerit). LOVE IT!
We are getting more information from the school/teachers/dorm parents and there are a few rules in place.
For our daughter’s dorm, the dorm parent has set a rule that phones/iPads/etc must be away from the desk and set to DND during study hours. He said that if the students are finished with their work early and have checked that off with the adult on duty that night (everything is marked as complete in online account and no emails unanswered from teachers), the students are allowed to read quietly or work on a personal passion project. He has also put it in the general guide to the dorm that he highly encourages students to not look at their phones after 10 pm and to sleep with it away from their bed so they are able to get to sleep better.
The teachers have a “threshold” rule where no students are allowed on phones or other electronics (or even to have them in their hands) once they cross the threshold of a classroom. It does not matter if the teacher is there or not. They are not allowed to have them in hand in a classroom unless the teacher specifically tells them to.
Other than that, I don’t think there is a school-wide cellphone rule.
already heard about this from HK oomfs… i think the main thing is that as someone who likes to recorf things dining hall is one of the only times I can see my friends. and like also so many people use the dh to study it wouldnt work… how would they control laptops??
ST. Andrew’s DE has probably handled the phone issue the best. More schools are putting policies into place about where and when they can be used. I love that some are mandating parental controls. We set this up for our child (though has glitches) this year for school. The phone is is used socially and for on school apps.
Hi- I was referencing some of the varying policies in the thread above. The more school’s ensure students should not have phones in classes, cafeteria, study hall and quads the more the students are engaged with one another. The focus becomes practicing the art of conversation vs. looking down and not being present in the community. If more schools required parental controls, It would become more the norm and expectation on campus taking out the child’s feeling of missing out, time sucking and being left out because ‘their parents’ won’t let them have access to whatever. The phones are causing a huge crisis and while there is a time and a place for them, our children are attending boarding schools to be present in the community that they are joining. Any way just my 2 cents.
I totally agree with you. I have set some parental controls. When its the norm for most kids they are more likely to not feel that they are missing out. They are more likely to communicate with each other when they cant use phones and social media all the time.
The detrimental effects of social media usage are just starting to show up. The mental health issues in teens and lack of soft skills among college grad is just being recognized.
Exactly. Schools typically have cell phone policy in the handbooks however it’s a good idea to talk to current students to see what the reality is at school.
It’s the same with dress code rules. There is often some greying of the lines between what’s written and what students can get away with.