District policy · 2026-2027
New Brunswick Public Schools
Middlesex County · K-12 district
Last verified · policy year 2026-2027 · policy 5516
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 allowed
- Phones and other personal internet-enabled devices are prohibited.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
- 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 outside the school day unless the district goes further.
How phones are stored
A local choice, not a state oneWe have not found a source that states how this district stores devices during the day.
The district requires devices to be "powered off, stored, and out of sight" but does not say where. Students "assume the risk of loss, theft, or damage", which suggests the device stays with the student, though the page does not say so.
What happens if the rule is broken
Five steps. First: device held until the end of the day, warning, written documentation, parent notified. Second: parent must retrieve it, after-school detention. Third: parent retrieval, digital citizenship reflection, after-school or Saturday detention, parent conference. Fourth: parent retrieval, in-school suspension, behaviour contract, conference. More than four: barred from bringing an electronic communication device to school or district programmes for the rest of the year.
Asking for an exception
The statute names what a policy must accommodateThe page defers to Regulation 5516 and Board Policy 5516 for the approved exceptions. Students ask to use the school office phone; parents contact the main office in an emergency.
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 summarisedDevices must remain powered off, stored, and out of sight throughout the entire school day, including during classes, passing periods, and lunch
New Brunswick Public Schools · read · Open the document
Everything else on this page is our reading of New Brunswick Public Schools’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
Cell Phone & Electronic Device Policy
New Brunswick Public Schools · checked
From arrival through dismissal, students may not use personal electronic communication devices except under approved exceptions.