District policy · 2026-2027
Lopatcong Township School District
Warren County · Elementary district · Grades K-8
Last verified · policy year 2026-2027 · policy 5516 · adopted July 29, 2026
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 oneOff and away in the student's own bag
Phones stay powered off in the student's own backpack or bag. Nothing is collected.
"Each student who brings an internet-enabled device to school is expected to turn off their internet-enabled device and store it in their backpack, locker, or other bag throughout the entire school day."
By grade: Almost none, and an earlier version of this record wrongly said otherwise. The regulation gives Kindergarten through grade four a full parallel set of provisions (A.1-A.7) matching grades 5-8 (B.1-B.7), including the same school-bus and before/after-school permissions in A.3 and A.4. The one real difference is the discipline ladder: a first offence is a warning for K-4 and a lunch detention for grades 5-8.
What happens if the rule is broken
Grades K-4: warning, then lunch detention, then two lunch detentions, then after-school detention, then in-school suspension, with out-of-school suspension beyond five incidents. Grades 5-8: lunch detention, then after-school detention, then two after-school detentions, then one day of in-school suspension, then in-school and out-of-school suspension.
Asking for an exception
The statute names what a policy must accommodateEight circumstances are listed, including an IEP, a 504 plan, a health plan, translation services, student caregiver responsibilities, emergencies, and where no reasonable alternative exists, upon authorisation by the Superintendent, Principal or designee.
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 summarised“Bell-to-bell” means the timeframe when the bell rings at the start of the school day until the dismissal bell rings at the end of the academic day. Bell-to-bell includes time in between class periods and lunch.
Lopatcong Township Board of Education · read · Open the document
Everything else on this page is our reading of Lopatcong Township 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 one of them into its own rule.s.2.b(2)
Sources
1 primary, 1 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 5516: Student Use of Internet-Enabled Devices (M)
Lopatcong Township Board of Education · Adopted 29 July 2026 · checked
District decisionCorroborating source · reporting, not an official document
Regulation 5516: Student Use of Internet-Enabled Devices
Lopatcong Township Board of Education · checked
Students in grade five through grade eight shall be permitted to use their internet-enabled device on school grounds before the start of the regular school day and on school grounds after the regular school day.