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Not Class Time

Not instruction

Lunch

Not allowed

Not on campus. If your school has an open lunch and you leave campus, you may use your phone while you are off campus, but it must be stored again when you return.Q8Q15

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

Your district can only make this stricter. Nothing in the statute lets a board allow more than the state guidelines do.

Why this one is disputed

The central dispute. A lunch period is not academic time, and the statute never mentions lunch. NJDOE permits phone use during off-campus lunch but not on-campus lunch, a distinction based on where a student is standing rather than on whether instruction is occurring.

The passage that governs this period

Quoted, not summarised
FAQsInternetEnbaledDevices_July2026.pdfQ8
No. The bell-to-bell policy requires personal internet-enabled devices to be off and stored for the entirety of the school day. Students may not access these devices during lunch on campus, study hall, time between classes, and/or other periods during the school day.

The word “lunch” appears nowhere in the enacted statute. It appears here, in a document the Commissioner can revise.full text

Where this answer comes from

Every one links to the original

Other periods

9 in the day
Previous: Class timeNext: Study hall

The argument

This is one of the periods we argue about

The restriction on this period comes from NJDOE’s guidance rather than from the statute, which never mentions it.full text That means the Commissioner can revise it without the Legislature passing anything.s.2.a

Read the caseAnd the case against