LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jefferson County Public Schools is moving forward with a district-wide cellphone ban beginning next school year, but some schools already have one in place, including Fern Creek High School.
During the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers passed House Bill 208, later signed into law by Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky. It requires school boards to adopt policies prohibiting student phone use during instructional time.
“I think our phone-free policy has been transformative," said Rebecca Nicolas, Fern Creek principal. "It has changed our classrooms. It’s changed our transition spaces."
The school enacted its ban at the beginning of this school year.
"It allows us to focus on teaching and learning in a way that I have felt really has been compromised by cellphones,” Nicolas said.
A district-wide ban will restrict almost all use of cellphones by students, including during lunch hours and between class periods. District leaders said the research is clear: the presence of cellphones has been detrimental to student learning and behavior.
“We wanted to ensure that phones were being eliminated as a distraction to teaching and learning,” said Jarrod Hunt, Fern Creek assistant principal. “We wanted to make sure that there was equitable access to learning resources for students with special needs. The third one, and maybe the one I was most adamant about, we wanted to reduce the burden of enforcement on our teaching staff."
It will be up to individual schools on how educators implement this rule. Fern Creek utilizes phone pouches as a tool, but that is not required by state law nor the district’s new rule on ensuring phone-free schools.
