Three years ago, at the behest of teachers, Santa Barbara Unified School District and the Santa Barbara Teachers’ Association created “Off and Away,” a policy banning cell phones from classrooms.
"It was becoming a power struggle between the device and the teacher and the student," said Shakenya Edison, SBUSD Assistant Superintendent of Student Services.
Just one week into the school year, third-year San Marcos Spanish teacher Esther Limon says it has had a big impact.
"The classroom culture and the community that is built is way better than it was before because now they're not connected to their device," Limon said.
According to a University of California Irvine study, it takes around 23 minutes to refocus after reading a notification. That’s about half the length of a typical class.
Less distraction and more engagement is the goal of "Off and Away” and Principal Dare Holdren says it's working.
"It's had a really big impact on our students. I see the engagement every day in classes going up and up," Holdren said.
The district-wide policy was fully launched last year school year. Students put their devices in "phone hotels" at the beginning of each class, restricting access unless a student has a health exception.
"Hopefully, we're headed towards a future where we're not all checking our phones every couple of minutes, and this is helping provide the tools for those kids to be able to accomplish things in life that they might not otherwise get to with their head buried in TikTok," Holdren said.
Holdren adds that noncompliance results in the administration contacting parents.
