District policy · 2026-2027
Hunterdon Central Regional High School District
Hunterdon County · Regional high school district · Grades 9-12
Last verified · policy year 2026-2027
Read this entry with one caveat
Study hall is recorded as unverified here, and the reason is worth stating precisely because a previous pass got it wrong. The handbook lists three times when “Electronic devices may be used”: before and after school, “Study Hall - as per teacher guidelines”, and field trips with approval. An earlier reading treated that list as possibly governing school-issued Chromebooks rather than personal phones. It does not: the only Chromebook sentences on the page sit in the Detention Hall and in-school-suspension rules, thousands of characters away and in an unrelated section, while the list itself follows directly from the paragraph citing P.L.2025 c.195 on personal internet-enabled devices. The list is about phones. What remains is a narrower and real conflict: study hall happens inside the stated 7:35AM-2:03PM ban AND inside a classroom, where the same section requires students to hand phones in on entry, so “as per teacher guidelines” cannot be reconciled with two other sentences and stays unverified. Before and after school falls outside that window and contradicts nothing, so it is recorded as permitted.
Period by period
2 of 6 not yet verifiedEach 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 yet verified
- We have not found a source that states this district's rule for this period. We have not guessed one.Study hall. NJDOE guidance restricts it; the statute never mentions it.
- School bus
- Not yet verified
- We have not found a source that states this district's rule for this period. We have not guessed one.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.
Devices are handed in at the classroom door and kept in a shared box: "As requested by students and teachers, every classroom in Hunterdon Central will have the same collection method. Students will be instructed to leave their devices in a collection box." Between blocks and at lunch they go in the student's own backpack.
What happens if the rule is broken
An Electronic Device Violation is a Tier 1 offence: first an administrative warning, then 1-3 after-school detentions, then 1-3 extended detentions. A violation during a testing period may also be treated as an academic integrity violation.
Asking for an exception
The statute names what a policy must accommodate“Exceptions to this law are limited to accommodations noted in a student's IEP or 504 plan or for medical reasons noted in a student's health plan. Requests must be submitted in writing by a parent/guardian to the appropriate person, such as case manager for IEPs, counselor for 504 plans, or nurse for health plan.” Field trips are allowed with principal or supervisor approval. In an evacuation the teacher carries the collection box outside.
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 summarisedPersonal smart phones/tablets/smart watches/smart glasses, etc. must be away during passing time and unit lunch - All devices must be turned off and put away in backpacks in between blocks and during unit lunch.
Hunterdon Central Regional High School District · read · Open the document
Everything else on this page is our reading of Hunterdon Central Regional High School District’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.
The highlighted words are the district’s, not ours. They are the periods the statute never names, and this district wrote them into its own rule.s.2.b(2)
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
Code of Conduct and Discipline: 2026-2027 Student Handbook
Hunterdon Central Regional High School District · checked
Personal smart phones/tablets/smart watches/smart glasses, etc. must be away during passing time and unit lunch - All devices must be turned off and put away in backpacks in between blocks and during unit lunch.