District policy · 2026-2027
Paterson Public Schools
Passaic County · K-12 district
Last verified · policy year 2026-2027
Read this entry with one caveat
The letter mentions a flip-phone allowance only conditionally (“if permitted by local policy”), so whether Paterson itself permits non-internet-enabled phones is not something this document tells us.
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 letter requires devices to be turned off and not in use, but names no storage method.
What happens if the rule is broken
We have not found this district’s stated consequences. Not yet verified
Asking for an exception
The statute names what a policy must accommodateThe letter says only “except for circumstances outlined in the law and guidance”. Families are told to call the main office in an emergency; students may go to the main office to call a parent, and may use district-issued email.
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 summarisedThis policy requires that all personal internet-enabled devices must be turned off and not in use for the duration of the school day; from the first bell to the last bell. Except for circumstances outlined in the law and guidance, personal devices may not be used at any time during the school day, including during lunch or in between classes.
Paterson Public Schools · read · Open the document
Everything else on this page is our reading of Paterson 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 one of 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
Bell-to-Bell Policy Update Letter
Paterson Public Schools · August 13, 2026 · checked