Georgia public school students will enter the next school year under a new mix of restrictions and expanded speech protections, with phones headed out of younger classrooms as political expression gets new legal backing.
The state’s K-8 cellphone ban is now in force statewide after Georgia lawmakers passed the Distraction-Free Education Act, requiring public schools to restrict access to personal electronic devices during the school day.
Local systems were required to adopt policies and procedures before the rollout, including rules for storage, communication with families and exceptions for documented needs. The law requires schools to make parents, guardians and students aware of the rules and review their effectiveness.
A separate measure, House Bill 1009, will extend the ban to high school students in grades nine through 12. That law, signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in May, takes effect Dec. 31 and includes certain exceptions.
The phone crackdown arrives alongside the True Patriotism and Universal Student Access Act, a new law designed to protect student political speech and political clubs in Georgia public schools.
The measure requires public schools to allow students to engage in political expression in the same manner and to the same extent students may take part in nonpolitical activities. It requires equal access for political groups in limited public forums.
Republican state Sen. Ben Watson of Savannah, who sponsored the proposal, said the law keeps school officials from using their authority to favor one viewpoint over another.
“School officials should not have the power to enforce their own ideologies onto students,” Watson said.
The result is a school year shaped by two priorities: fewer classroom distractions and stronger protections for student expression.
