What we’re asking for

Let districts decide about the periods that are not instruction.

One change, at one level of government, in documents that can be revised without a new law. Below: exactly what we are asking NJDOE to rewrite, what we are deliberately leaving alone, and our answers to the enforcement problem that a lunch carve-out genuinely creates.

FAQsInternetEnbaledDevices_July2026.pdfQ8

Can students use personal internet-enabled devices during lunch, study hall, and/or time in between classes?No. The bell-to-bell policy requires personal internet-enabled devices to be off and stored for the entirety of the school day.

This is the answer we are asking the Department to turn into a district option for grades 9–12. It is a Department document, revisable by the Department.^s.2.a

The ask

One level, three sentences

State guidanceIssued by the Commissioner of Education under the statute. Revisable by NJDOE without new legislation.

That the Commissioner revise the guidance and FAQs so that a district may permit students in grades 9–12 to use personal internet-enabled devices during identified non-instructional periods.

Study hall, on-campus lunch, and passing time, while every district remains free to prohibit them.^s.2.a

Why this level

Nothing in the ask needs a bill, a court, or a vote. Every sentence it touches is one the Department wrote and can rewrite. Who decides what sets out why no other level can grant it.

In the actual documents

FAQ Q8. The answer shown at the top of this page.^Q8 We ask that it become a district option for grades 9–12 rather than a flat prohibition.
The Key Terms definition. The sentence that carries the whole dispute is in the guidance’s own glossary:Bell-to bell includes time in between class periods and lunch.^{Key Terms}We ask that it be narrowed, and that a definition of “non-instructional period” be added beside it.
The grades 9–12 recommendations. That section is already written in the register of things a district might do:Consider the following suggestions to incorporate into a grades 9-12 cell phone and internet-enabled device policy.^{Grades 9-12}We ask for one more consideration in the same register: that a district may identify non-instructional periods in which devices are permitted, and how to run one if it does.
Nothing else. The statutory prohibition on non-academic use during instruction, the storage options, the exceptions, the emergency provisions and the power of a board to be stricter all stay exactly as they are.^s.2.b(2)^s.2.e

Answering the enforcement problem

Five answers, in the order they matter

The strongest thing said against us is practical, not philosophical: a full-day rule is enforceable and a partial one may not be. It is stated at full strength on the opposing case page.

Answer 1: Permission, never a mandate

The operational cost falls only on a district that chooses to take it on. A board that decides a lunch window is unworkable in its building keeps its current policy, and the statute already guarantees it may.^s.2.e This is the answer that does most of the work, because it means the objection stops being a reason to refuse everyone and becomes a reason for some districts to decline.

Answer 2: The cost depends entirely on the storage method

NJDOE lists four storage options and lets districts mix them by school or grade.^{Device Storage Options}^Q6 The unlock burden the objection describes is a property of one of them. The highlighted words below are the Department’s, not ours.

The four storage options NJDOE lists. The middle column is the guidance’s own wording, quoted exactly. The last column is our reasoning, not something any source states.
Storage option	What NJDOE says it involves	What a window would add (ours)
Locked Pouch System	Upon entry to school, devices are placed into secure pouches which allow students to carry their personal devices but prevent their use. At the end of the day, staff use a specific magnetic device to unlock each pouch and allow students to retrieve their devices.^{Device Storage Options}	A staff-operated unlock and re-lock for every participating device, inside the period. This is the hard case, and a district on pouches can simply decline to opt in.
School Locker or Bin System	Upon entry to school, school staff collect and store devices in assigned lockers or bins. Students retrieve their devices at the end of the day when the staff unlock the storage unit.^{Device Storage Options}	One staff-operated unlock per storage unit, then handing devices out and taking them back. The cost scales with how many units there are, not with students one at a time.
In-Class Storage Stations	Each classroom is equipped with a teacher-managed system where students are expected to store their devices for the entire school day and retrieve them at dismissal. These storage stations may be locked or unlocked and include options such as numbered pockets/shelves, caddies, or lockers.^{Device Storage Options}	If the station is unlocked, nothing mechanical is added at all. The change is to the rule, not to the logistics.
Student Storage	Each student who brings a personal internet-enabled device to school is expected to turn off the device and store it in their backpack, locker or other bag throughout the entire school day.^{Device Storage Options}	Nothing mechanical. The device is already with the student. Only the rule about when it may come out would change.

Answer 3: Phase it, cheapest first

Study hall first. One room, one adult already assigned, a fixed roster, and a period long enough that a few minutes of handling is not the whole period. If a district can only do one thing, this is the one.
Then lunch. Already supervised, already confined to a defined space, and the period the argument is actually about.
Passing time last. It is building-wide and only minutes long, which makes it the hardest to run and the least worth spending the ask on. We are not pressing it first, and we would accept a revision that left it out.

Answer 4: The boundary is a bell the whole building already hears

The guidance already asks districts to reinforce expectations through announcements, signage and homeroom routines.^{Communicating Policy} A period boundary uses a signal that already exists and that every person in the building shares, which is not true of the on-campus versus off-campus line the FAQs already draw at lunch.^Q15

Answer 5: It gets evaluated by machinery that already exists

NJDOE already tells boards to revisit and update the policy annually using stakeholder feedback, and to regularly review discipline data and implementation practices to see whether they are achieving what they were meant to.^{Communicating Policy}^{Imposing Consequences} A district that opts in reports at that review. If incidents or referrals rise, it stops. We would regard that as the proposal working correctly, not as a defeat.

What we are not asking for

Five things this proposal does not touch

A proposal is only credible if its edges are stated as clearly as its centre.

Phones during class. The statute requires the guidelines to prohibit non-academic use during the school day, and instruction is the core of what it is for.
Any change for grades K-8. NJDOE's own grade bands treat younger students differently, and we are not arguing with that.
Removing a district's power to be stricter than the state. That is in the statute and we are not asking the Legislature to touch it.
Weakening any exception: IEP and 504 accommodations, health plans, translation, student caregivers, or emergencies.
Permission for students to ignore the rules their school has now. The rule in force is the rule, and this site never suggests otherwise.

While the rule is the rule

Your school’s policy applies to you today, whatever we think of it. Arguing to change a rule is ordinary civic participation. Ignoring it gets students disciplined and hands the argument to the other side. This site will never tell you to break it.

Where this has to land

The ask above is aimed at NJDOE because NJDOE is the level that can grant it. A local board cannot, no matter how sympathetic it is. Which decision goes to which level is set out in full on the who-decides-what page.

Who decides what Read the case against us