District policy · 2026-2027
Eatontown Board of Education
Monmouth County · Elementary district · Grades K-8
Last verified · policy year 2026-2027 · policy 5516
Read this entry with one caveat
The document is dated 24 August 2026 but carries an adoption date of 14 September 2026, which was still in the future when we read it on 7 September 2026, so no adoption date is recorded. Treat this as the board-packet version of a policy not yet formally adopted; the regulation pages are still headed “REGULATION NEW DISTRICT BOARD OF EDUCATION”, the placeholder the Strauss Esmay template ships with, which appears five times. This record previously read the policy as stricter than the state minimum “because it reaches after-school clubs, practices and games”. That was a misreading: the only text mentioning those is the repeat-offender sanction, which bars a student who violates the rule more than four times in a year from bringing a device to those activities for the rest of the year. That is a consequence imposed on one student, not a district-wide extension of the ban, so the field is now false.
Period by period
All 6 verified from a sourceEach row is either something this district’s own document says, or an explicit admission that we have not found it. We never infer one period from another. Passing time, lunch and study hall, the three periods the statute never mentions, are marked with an amber rule.Q8
- Class time
- Not allowed
- Phones and other personal internet-enabled devices are prohibited.Instructional time. Restricted under the statute itself.
- Passing timeNot named in the statute
- Not allowed
- Phones and other personal internet-enabled devices are prohibited.Between classes. NJDOE guidance restricts it; the statute never mentions it.
- LunchNot named in the statute
- Not allowed
- Phones and other personal internet-enabled devices are prohibited.On-campus lunch. NJDOE guidance restricts it; the statute never mentions it.
- Study hallNot named in the statute
- Not allowed
- Phones and other personal internet-enabled devices are prohibited.Study hall. NJDOE guidance restricts it; the statute never mentions it.
- School bus
- Allowed
- The policy permits device use during this period.State guidance permits phones on buses unless the district goes further. A district rule here is stricter than the state floor.
- Before and after school
- Allowed
- The policy permits device use during this period.State guidance permits phones outside the school day unless the district goes further.
How phones are stored
A local choice, not a state oneVaries by school
Different schools in the district use different storage methods.
Grades 6-8 use teacher-managed in-class storage: "numbered pockets/shelves, caddies, or lockers." Grades K-5 keep devices in "their backpack, locker, or other bag throughout the entire school day."
By grade: Grades 6-8 hand devices in to a teacher-managed storage station on entry and collect them at dismissal. Grades K-5 keep them powered off in their own bag.
What happens if the rule is broken
First: the device goes to the Principal's office for the day, the student signs an acknowledgment and parents are notified. Second and third: parent retrieval plus detention. Fourth: parent retrieval plus in-school suspension. More than four: barred from bringing a device on school grounds, on a school bus, or to any school-sponsored program for the rest of the year, with out-of-school suspension for bringing one anyway.
Asking for an exception
The statute names what a policy must accommodateThe full statutory list applies. A parent submits a written request with supporting documentation to the Superintendent or designee, who answers within five school days. A staff member may request a classroom accommodation with five school days' notice, answered within three.
The statute itself names circumstances a policy must accommodate, including an IEP, a 504 plan, a documented health plan, translation needs, certain caregiving responsibilities, and emergencies.s.2.b(3)-(5)
In the district’s own words
Quoted exactly, not summarisedIn-class storage stations - Upon entry to school, students in grades six through eight are expected to store their internet-enabled devices in a teacher-managed system for the entire school day and retrieve them at dismissal.
Eatontown Board of Education · read · Open the document
Everything else on this page is our reading of Eatontown Board of Education’s policy. This is the policy. We quote rather than paraphrase so you can check us against the document instead of taking our word for what it says.
Sources
1 primary, 0 corroboratingNothing on this page can be published without at least one primary source attached to it. That is enforced by the database, not by a habit.
District decisionPrimary source
Policy and Regulation 5516: Student Use of Internet-Enabled Devices
Eatontown Board of Education · August 24, 2026 (adoption date printed as 14 September 2026) · checked
Students in Kindergarten through grade eight shall be permitted to use their internet-enabled device on a school bus on their way to school at the start of the school day or on their way home from school at the end of the school day.