RICHMOND (WINA) – A House of Delegates committee has put off until next year legislation that would have the Virginia Department of Education create a model policy for cellphone use during instructional time. Midlothian Republican Delegate Mark Earley, Jr’s bill would allow creation of the guidelines ” to seek to balance the interests of students’ academic achievement, cognitive development, safety, and general well-being”.

Student advocate Kandise Lucas in a K-12 subcommittee meeting argued such policies would create a hardship for students who may not have access to laptops and tablets, and who are in poorer school divisions. She says many of those students do work on their phones. She also points out students who use their phones to report being bullied.

Cherry pointed to statistics about the distraction cellphones are to students during instructional times, noting there’s 62-percent more note-taking by students who don’t have them versus those who do.

Roanoke Democrat Sam Rasoul — who chairs the House Education Committee that continued the bill until next year — says he’s conflicted as a parent understanding distractibility. But he feels the real remedy starts at home, and he wants to see a comprehensive approach to what he calls an “addiction”.