Today’s pop quiz: What do kangaroos, wombats, koalas and students at a number of Arlington schools all have that others do not?
The answer: pouches.
While the other animals use them to carry and care for their offspring, students at Wakefield High School, Swanson and Thomas Jefferson middle schools and the middle-school level at H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program are using them as storage for cellphones and other electronic devices during the school day.
Those schools were selected as the proving grounds to determine if the pouches – which have been used by a number of other school systems across the nation – are more effective at keeping students off phones while in school than other methods. They are being introduced as Arlington Public Schools starts the school year with countywide restrictions on personal-device use during the instructional day.
Though too early to draw any conclusions on the effort, School Board members did discuss it at a Sept. 5 meeting. Among the points of discussion: What happens if a natural or manmade disaster strikes?
“Parents and many students are anxious to have access to their phones in case of emergency,” School Board Chairman Mary Kadera said.
“In an actual lockdown, you might not want” students to have access to phones, countered board member Miranda Turner. (Kadera acknowledged that point.)
The pouch pilot is slated to run all year. What happens after that, nobody can tell, but Kadera did opine that any discussion of whether to expand it countywide, or not, should occur when parents and students are engaged.
“The goal would not be to have that happen over the summer,” she said.
While schools involved in the pilot are using pouches, all county schools are seeing more restrictions on phone accessibility this year. Under stopgap rules in place until a formal policy is adopted at the end of the year, Arlington students must have their phones put away throughout the school day at the elementary- and middle-school levels, and during instructional periods at the high-school level. If parents need to contact students, they have to do it the old-fashioned way: Call the school office to get in touch.
There are some exceptions, including for students who need an electronic device due to a disability or medical issue.
Any final policy adopted by Arlington’s School Board likely will have to meet at least minimum guidelines soon to be announced by the Virginia Department of Education. Though described as “guidance,” the state proposal is likely to be more a mandate handed down to the Old Dominion’s 132 school districts.
