Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
Missouri News Network: Statehouse News for MPA Members
This report is written by Missouri School of Journalism students for publication by MPA member newspapers in print and online.
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With our students on break we had limited coverage this week. We have coverage on sheriffs’ salaries, proposals to post the 10 commandments in schools and efforts across the country, including Missouri, to limit cellphone use in public schools.
If you have thoughts or questions, contact Fred Anklam at anklamf@missouri.edu.
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THURSDAY
Boone County sheriff's salary is highest for a first-class county
By Sterling Sewell, Missouri News Network
Boone County Sheriff Dwayne Carey is the highest paid sheriff in a first-class county in Missouri, but his next potential raise hinges on a bill moving through the legislature.
Sheriffs’ salaries in first- and second-class counties are set at 80% of associate circuit judge pay. The pay for these sheriffs was set at $124,971 for the 2023-24 pay period. The 2024-25 pay period sets salaries at $130,720.
Carey made $174,116 in 2024 thanks to a special exemption, which has since been thrown out because of a state Supreme Court decision.
Within a Senate omnibus bill is a small provision that would reinstate an exemption for Boone County’s sheriff to maintain a salary not tied to the salary of the associate circuit judge.
Without the exemption, it is unclear how raises for the sheriff would be determined past the end of the current pay term in 2027. If the exemption does not pass, the sheriff’s pay could possibly freeze until associate circuit judge pay exceeds his current salary.
Salary history
Before 2022, first-class county sheriffs’ pay was set by each county’s Salary Commission. The commission is made up of the elected officials of each county, including the commissioners, prosecuting attorney, recorder of deeds, county clerk and sheriff.
The salary commissions met in odd number years to set the salary, including cost of living increases, for county officer positions in the next elected term.
In the 2021 legislative session, the current statute was passed, tying sheriffs’ salaries to associate circuit judge salaries. The legislation went into effect in 2022 and was meant to raise the salaries of elected sheriffs across the state. However, the Boone County sheriff already made more than 80% of the associate circuit judge pay at the time the law went into effect.
“It was designed to get the salaries up, not to punish anyone ... that had higher salaries,” Carey said.
Without a clear mechanism for raises above the 80%, the Boone County sheriff’s pay froze in 2022.
The next year, an exemption was made allowing Boone County to keep its sheriff’s pay separate from the associate circuit judges’ pay, with salary adjustments determined by the Salary Commission.
This exemption was one provision included in a larger omnibus bill. Without the exemption, the Boone County sheriff would not get a raise until his salary was less than 80% of associate circuit judge pay. Then, he would be eligible for a raise.
In November 2023, the Boone County Salary Commission approved the salary formula for county officers, including the sheriff, for the 2024-27 term of office.
A month later, the Missouri Supreme Court overturned the omnibus bill that created the exemption for Boone County. The court overturned the statute because unrelated provisions of the bill violated the one subject rule of the Missouri Constitution. The decision overturned all provisions of the bill, including the salary exemption for the Boone County sheriff.
Because the Boone County Salary Commission had already set the salary formula for 2024-27 before the ruling, the county’s formula remained in place. Without another exemption, pay for the sheriff will no longer be set by the Salary Commission beginning in 2027 and any mechanism for increased wages would be unclear.
Senate Bill 1, proposed this session, is an omnibus bill that would reinstate most of the provisions of the 2022 bill except for those the Supreme Court took issue with. This includes the provision exempting the Boone County sheriff from current pay standards, allowing the Salary Commission to continue to determine pay.
The omnibus bill has been on a fast track through the General Assembly. The bill passed the Senate in early February and passed out of a House committee on March 13.
County support
Sen. Sandy Crawford, R-Buffalo, who proposed SB 1, said some Boone County commissioners and Carey expressed support for the exemption at the time of the 2022 bill’s passage. Carey also discussed the bill with Crawford this year.
“I was approached by one or more of the commissioners as this was going through the process, and they were in favor of exempting themselves too,” Crawford said.
Kip Kendrick, Boone County’s presiding commissioner, said the main reason he supports the exemption is the need for clarification in the current law.
“The clarity of law is important here — also the value the sheriff provides communities,” Kendrick said.
Kendrick and Boone County Counselor CJ Dykhouse both said the county is getting a good value for the sheriff’s work despite his pay being higher than other sheriffs.
“I can say that I think it’s a good value, the sheriff provides a good value to Boone County taxpayers with the complex law enforcement side and a complex detention side,” Kendrick said.
Dykhouse said he believes that because of everything the sheriff does, the position is likely underpaid.
Kendrick pointed to the county’s new regional law enforcement training center, expected to be completed in 2026. The training center would be run by the sheriff’s department and consist of a tactical firearms range and another facility for scenario-based trainings.
Almost 50 regional law enforcement agencies — some in and some outside the state — have expressed interest in using the facility, Kendrick said.
“Once the training center opens up we’re going to be doing a lot of continuing education training to all of our partners surrounding us in mid-Missouri,” Carey said.
The sheriff’s department is collaborating with the Law Enforcement Training Institute, an extension of the University of Missouri. The sheriff’s department is creating an advisory board for LETI and will provide use of the new regional training center.
All first-class county sheriff’s departments have a jail they run, but Boone County’s jail has a large number of inmates. In January, the jail needed to house 288 people, but only had 246 beds, according to KOMU 8.
The target number of inmates is between 200-230, Capt. Brian Leer told KOMU 8 in January. Many Boone County inmates are held in other jails, which caused an increased expense and burden on the sheriff’s department. Carey said Boone County’s jail had 112 inmates held outside of the county on March 21.
“The sheer number of detainees that we have for the size of jail we have,” Carey said. “The logistical nightmare that goes along with having 112 in other counties, but you’re still responsible for them. So, the jail is just a huge liability.”
Carey also noted the department’s national credentials — the only law enforcement agency in Missouri with national accreditation in both law enforcement operations and jail operations. These accreditations are through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies and National Institute of Jail Operations.
“In my mind, I don’t think we’re doing anything special, I just think we’re doing what we’re paid to do,” Carey said. “For the law enforcement officers but also the citizens that we serve.”
Comparing offices
The Boone County Sheriff’s Department had a 2024 budget of $19.6 million. The sheriff’s department is authorized 145 full-time equivalency, or FTE, employees. FTE shows the total workload of employees represented as an equivalent number of full-time positions.
The median number of FTE employees for first-class county sheriff’s departments in the six counties with populations exceeding 100,000 matches that of Boone County’s with 145 FTE employees.
Boone County is the second largest first-class county by population with 189,463 individuals, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The largest first-class county is Greene County, home to Springfield — the third largest city in the state.
The sheriff’s department in Greene County has 615 FTE employees and a 2024 budget of $38.4 million. Greene County’s estimated population is 304,611.
Reported violent crime between the two counties is significantly different. The Boone County Sheriff’s Department reported 84 violent crimes in 2024, continuing a three-year decline since 2022, according to reports from the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Greene County reported 179 violent crimes in 2024, an increase of roughly 80% from the previous year.
Violent crime, as calculated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, includes murder, sexual assault, robberies and aggravated assault.
Greene County’s sheriff was paid $127,845.51 in 2024, in alignment with 80% of associate circuit judge pay. This is 31% less than Carey made last year.
The next three first-class counties with smaller populations — Jasper, Platte and Cass counties — have populations with at least 64,000 less people, yet Jasper and Platte counties both have larger sheriff’s department budgets than Boone County. Cass County has an FTE count equal to Boone County but with a lower budget and population.
Comparing FTE counts and budgets does not show the full picture. Carey said running a sheriff’s department can be “a totally different job” depending on the county. For instance, he noted how the number of inmates a sheriff’s department oversees varies by county.
Beyond comparing the Boone County Sheriff’s Department to different counties, Carey said it is important to understand how his pay fits within other salaries in Boone County.
“If my salary froze for the remainder of my career and we did not try to fix this,” Carey said, “then other people in Boone County — based off of the salary commission — that don’t have near the responsibility, would then end up making more money than me.”
Carey has been the Boone County sheriff for 20 years. When Carey was elected to the office, he assumed the same salary as the previous sheriff, Theodore Boehm.
The decision by the county to maintain the previous salary likely contributed to Carey’s pay being higher than 80% of associate circuit judge pay. When Carey retires, the sheriff’s salary he earns would be passed onto the next elected sheriff only if the exemption is approved by the legislature.
“There’s a lot of stuff that I’m dealing with here that maybe others don’t deal with, and maybe they do,” Carey said.
“Like anything in life, I’m not concerned about what somebody else is making or what they’re not making,” he said. “I’m just concerned about what we’re doing here at the sheriff’s office.”
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WEDNESDAY
Private-public partnerships bolstering major Missouri industries
By Sterling Sewell, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — As offshoring continues to impact America’s private sector and national defense, three Missouri industries have benefited from government programs to secure production in the state.
According to a report from the Coalition for a Prosperous America, 3.82 million American jobs have been lost due to the United States’ current trade deficit with China — the largest deficit it holds with any other country.
Offshoring has been a concern of the Department of Defense. In a report conducted following a 2021 executive order signed by then-President Joe Biden, the DOD outlined recommendations to ensure supply chains for defense production.
“The Department of Defense requires healthy, resilient, diverse, and secure supply chains to ensure the development and sustainment of capabilities critical to national security,” the report said. “The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlighted vulnerabilities in complex global supply chains in very real ways to the public, government, and industry.”
One of the highlighted supply chains listed in the report was for micro-electronics.
The Missouri Senate Committee on Emerging Issues heard testimony two weeks ago on efforts toward reshoring in the pharmaceutical, critical mineral and semiconductor industries.
Pharmaceuticals
In the House Lounge at the Missouri Capitol, Thomas Hart Benton’s Mural “A Social History of the State of Missouri” depicts Kansas City’s burgeoning pharmaceutical industry in the 1930s.
Large pharmaceutical companies like Katz Co. and later Marion Merrell Dow made the city and the state a major manufacturer of medication. Marion Laboratories, the predecessor to Marion Merrell Dow, was founded by Kansas City entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman. Kauffman is the namesake of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and founder of the Kansas City Royals.
In 1999, Kauffman’s company was taken over by Sanofi, a multinational pharmaceutical company. In 2009, the company closed manufacturing in Kansas City, following national offshoring trends.
Today China and India are the top producers of active pharmaceutical chemicals, or APIs, which are the effective ingredients in medication.
Over 80% of the top 100 generic medicines used in the U.S. have no state-side supply of their APIs, said Tony Sardella, founder and chair of the API Innovation Center in St. Louis.
“Our nation’s drug supply chain is highly vulnerable and at risk to us being overly dependent on foreign manufacturers, including China, who produces a significant amount of our U.S. medicine,” Sardella said.
Sardella also noted that without the legislature’s support in previous years the state would not have seen increased economic growth in API manufacturing, and without continued support may not see this growth increase.
“With your support, our vision is to bring manufacturing of 25 medicines to Missouri in the next five years, and 300 in the next 10,” Sardella said. “That equates to $1.2 billion and $17.2 billion in economic impact to the state respectively.”
Minerals
Mohammad Dehghani, chancellor of Missouri University of Science & Technology, spoke to the need for critical mineral programs in the state. Dehghani referenced a 2022 report from the U.S. Geological Survey listing 50 critical minerals needed for economic growth and national security — he said that 25 of the 50 could be found in the state.
These 50 critical minerals are used in a variety of micro-electronics and other technologies that Americans use on a daily basis.
Dehghani emphasized a need to produce more critical minerals in order to be competitive with China. He pointed out a recent Chinese ban on exporting several critical minerals.
Dehghani spoke to the success of Missouri S&T’s Critical Minerals and Materials for Advanced Energy consortium, which was recently designated a Tech Hub and awarded $29 million by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration.
If state and federal support continues, 14 counties could benefit from an estimated $34 million in economic growth, according to an independent economic study. The study also estimates the creation of roughly 23,000 jobs. The Missouri General Assembly approved $16 million in funding for the 2024 financial year for mining innovation — Missouri S&T received funding that helped to secure its EDA grant.
“Had it not been for the generous support from this body we would not have been able to secure the national grant that we received,” Dehghani said.
Budget cuts
Kevin Edwards, a senior project manager at Brewer Science, said that the legislature has a role in addressing the erosion of the national semiconductor supply chain. The company is a manufacturer of semiconductors based in Rolla.
“From the perspective of Brewer Science any action that improves access to capital or funds further research and development or allows us to expand our manufacturing capability helps us keep pace with the market demand,” Edwards said. “So, that we can continue to contribute to the security of our nation’s semiconductor supply chain while employing Missourians.”
Edwards sited Missouri’s swift adoption of the CHIPS, or Creating Helpful Incentives for Producing Semiconductors Act. This act provides investments in the state’s semiconductor supply chain.
All of the representatives who spoke to the committee discussed the beneficial nature of public and private partnership in growing industries in Missouri.
A House budget subcommittee requested $15 million in cuts to the Department of Economic Development. Within the $15 million, $9.6 million is earmarked for a program to promote API manufacturing and $5.4 million is meant to promote semiconductor manufacturing.
That subcommittee’s chair, Rep. Darin Chappell, R-Rogersville, said that the cuts had been advised by the state’s Department of Economic Development.
The Department of Economic Development could not be reached for comment regarding the proposed cuts.
Additionally, potential cuts to federal funding have been the subject of concern at the University of Missouri.
Last month, UM System President Mun Choi sent out a letter preparing staff for potential cuts to National Institute of Health funding brought on by direction from President Donald Trump’s administration.
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Initiative petition changes remain a priority for legislature
By Olivia Maillet, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — Changing the initiative petition process has been a hot topic in the Missouri legislature over the past few years.
Citizen-led initiatives that passed in recent elections include legalizing marijuana, establishing a right to an abortion and raising the state’s minimum wage. These initiative movements happened after the legislature declined to address those issues.
Bills being proposed by the Republican supermajority in the legislature address a multitude of lawmakers’ concerns:
Here is a deeper look at proposals being considered in the legislature.
Initiative passage
Currently, to get an initiative on a ballot regarding a proposed constitutional amendment, 8% of the voters in two-thirds of Missouri’s congressional districts must sign the petition.
A proposed joint resolution, Senate Joint Resolution 11, seeks to raise this requirement to 15% of voters in each congressional district. The resolution also says it would require 10% of voters’ signatures to get an initiative about a law on the ballot, which is double the percentage required now.
Another proposed joint resolution, SJR 10, would impose stricter passage of ballot initiatives in an election. Unlike the current requirement of a simple majority, the resolution states that a constitutional amendment can only pass on a ballot after receiving a simple majority of votes statewide plus a majority in at least five of the state’s eight congressional districts.
Sen. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, is sponsoring this resolution. He said he supports it because it would encourage groups seeking to put initiatives on the ballot to focus their efforts on rural areas as much as urban.
In rural U.S. House District 8 in southeast Missouri, all 28 counties saw fewer than half of their residents voted for Amendment 3 to pass in the last election according to an analysis by the Beacon Missouri.
“When you allow for the initiative petition process, voters decide what to do to get results independently of the legislature,” said Rep. David Tyson Smith, D-Columbia. “People in power don’t want that. They want to have all of the power, so they want to make it more difficult for the citizens to get what they want.”
The changes called for in the resolutions would have to be approved by voters in 2026 if approved by legislators this year.
Petition circulation
One House bill, HB 575, restricts the requirements to be a petition circulator. The House gave its initial approval for it to move onto the Senate.
The 1999 Buckley v. American Constitutional Law Foundation case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court set the precedent that petition circulators are not required to be registered voters; however, states can require the circulators to be residents as a less restrictive way of protecting against fraud. For example, North Dakota doesn’t have voter registration, so petition circulators must be “qualified” voters, meaning 18 years old or older and state residents.
As of 2014, petition circulators in Missouri must be 18 or older and register with the secretary of state. HB 575, if passed, will require petition circulators to be U.S. citizens, residents of Missouri or have been in Missouri for 30 consecutive days before collecting signatures.
Rep. Brad Banderman, R-St. Clair, who is sponsoring this bill, said that the proposed petition circulator requirements will begin to “standardize” the process throughout the Eighth Circuit, which includes both North Dakota and Missouri. The bill also requires signatures to be printed on a form specified by the secretary of state, and the signatures must be in black or dark ink.
“Obviously, if someone goes through the trouble of signing one of these things, we want their signature to count,” Banderman said.
The bill changes who can challenge an official ballot title for a constitutional amendment, initiative petition, or referendum measure to only registered Missouri voters. Currently, any citizen can legally dispute these to the secretary of state.
Ballot summaries
Similar to changing how initiative ballot titles are disputed, legislators also aim to pass new provisions in a bill on how ballot summaries are written.
SB 22, passed the Senate and is before the House Elections Committee. The bill says that if the legislature adopts a resolution proposing a constitutional amendment, the summary statement will appear on the ballot as written by the legislature.
If the court finds the summary legally flawed, the secretary of state will have up to three chances to rewrite it. Currently a judge can rewrite the summary. The bill also doubles the word limit on the summary from 50 to 100 words.
“The court is not fully removed,” said Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, who is sponsoring the bill. “It’s basically three bites of the apple, and if it still doesn’t meet that criteria, they still have the capability after those three attempts to write it. The checks and balances are still there, but the silos of authority aren’t overstepped by the court.”
Brattin said that the judicial branch was never meant to be the author of any legislation and that this bill is “righting that inconsistency.”
“Senate Bill 22, the horrific ‘Let Politicians Lie Act,’ is a classic example of how far politicians will go to trick voters by putting misleading language on the ballot,” said Benjamin Singer, CEO of Show Me Integrity and co-founder of the Respect Voters Coalition.
The Respect Voters Coalition is on the offensive to prevent the government from restricting the right to petition. The group filed a citizen initiative proposing an amendment barring the Missouri legislature from “weakening citizen’s direct lawmaking power” with the secretary of state last December.
If this amendment gains enough signatures for the 2026 ballot, it will prohibit raising signature thresholds and shortening the time allowed for signature collection. It would also secure the freedom to petition a wide variety of subject matters.
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TUESDAY
Senate bill proposes religious doctrine become a staple in Missouri classrooms
By Natanya Friedheim, Missouri News Network
JEFFERSON CITY — A bill in the Missouri Senate’s education committee concerning religion in the classroom had senators, faith-based leaders and school advocates alike at odds Tuesday morning. If passed, Senate Bill 594 would require classrooms to display a poster of at least 11 inches by 14 inches with the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
Missouri students would see the words “I AM THE LORD thy God” followed by the Ten Commandments posted in every public and charter school classroom they enter.
“I honestly believe that when prayer went out of schools, and religion was removed from schools, that guns came in and violence came in,” the bill sponsor, Sen. Jamie Burger, R-Benton, said during the hearing.
In opposition to the bill, Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, D-Kansas City, expressed concern about the costs of potential litigation. She also opposed the bill on principle. “This goes against the very founding of our nation,” she said.
Burger disagreed. After a back and forth, he said, “You know one thing, I think, when they talk about separation of church and state, I think they were talking about, we don’t want any church ran by the state. That’s my feelings. That’s my interpretation.”
Faith leaders testified both in support of and opposition to the bill — and people on both sides took issue with the version of the Ten Commandments included in the bill.
Faiths that adhere to the Ten Commandments, including Judaism, Catholicism and Lutheranism, have different versions of it, so the bill would “take sides in a deeply theological debate,” said Brian Kaylor, a Baptist minister and president of Word & Way, an online publication.
“This bill would make many students feel like second-class citizens in their own classrooms, just because they come from a religious tradition that lists the Ten Commandments differently, they adhere to a religious faith that does not even include the Ten Commandments, or they have no faith at all,” he added.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed a similar bill into law last year. A federal judge blocked the law in November, and the state appealed the court’s decision.
In 1980’s Stone v. Graham decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a similar law in Kentucky violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which states “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.”
For Sage Coram of the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, the bill violates the U.S. and Missouri constitutions. Children are required to attend school, and SB 594 could pressure students into adopting the state’s preferred religion, usurping parents’ right to choose what religious doctrine, if any, to instill in their children, Coram said at the hearing.
Bev Ehlen of Liberty Link Missouri supported the bill but asked that “kill” be replaced with “murder” in “Thou shalt not kill.”
Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, who chairs the education committee, spoke at length in favor of the measure. He cited his belief that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation.
“We just need to be willing to plant that flag, that God, and the God of the Ten Commandments, is who gave us this amazing nation, and we need to be able to reflect and look at that,” Brattin said.
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Lawmakers want K-12 students off their phones at school, but proposals vary widely
By Anna Sago, Missouri News Network
Cellphones in schools have become a target of lawmakers across the country.
From New Jersey to California, state leaders are pushing school districts to get students off their phones. At least 160 bills have been filed on the topic in 38 states and Washington, D.C. as of mid-March, according to a Statehouse Reporting Network analysis.
But policies vary widely, ranging from grant programs that provide financial incentives to adopt policies, to strict statewide bell-to-bell bans. While some have hailed less restrictive measures as allowing for greater flexibility and local control, others say states aren’t moving fast enough to curb the cellphone problem.
In Texas, Rep. Ellen Troxclair, R-Lakeway, proposed a statewide no-phones policy. She said she’s heard from several districts that have seen benefits from a total phone ban.
“Teachers are reporting that kids are more engaged … they have more quality education time in the classroom," she said. "Kids who originally were not sure about how to live without their cellphone, after a few weeks, they realized that life is good without a screen.”
Across the country, red and blue states alike are pushing school districts to get students off their phones. At least 153 bills have been filed on the topic in 38 states and Washington, D.C. as of March 24, according to a Statehouse Reporting Project analysis.
But teachers, school administrators, experts and lawmakers are at odds over which policies are best. And as that debate continues, so does the fight for students’ attention.
This is your kid’s brain on cellphones
From 2015 to 2023, the share of teens who use the internet at least once a day has ballooned to 96%. Of those, around half reported being online “almost constantly,” according to a Pew Research survey. Educators, school administrators and parents have been raising the alarm that being constantly plugged in is blocking students from learning.
A number of studies back those observations, including one that found the mere presence of a student’s cellphone on their desk impacts cognitive function during demanding tasks, including learning.
Annette Anderson, an assistant professor and deputy director of the Center for Safe and Healthy Schools at Johns Hopkins University, founded schools in Pennsylvania and Baltimore before accepting a position at the university teaching K-12 administrators and teachers.
She said phones have been causing issues in the classroom for the last 15 years. Like Cooney, she said that harm accelerated after the COVID-19 pandemic, when social media apps became more prominent.
The novelty of the issue has precluded any scholarly consensus on the precise impacts of phones on students’ mental health and attention spans. But teachers, school administrators and scholars say the devices take a toll on students in and out of the classroom.
“There's always something that's happening in their pocket that is more engaging than anything that I could do as a teacher in the classroom, or that their social life would even provide them,” said Brendon Cooney, a teacher in Joplin. “The losses are not strictly measured by test performance. It's their social well-being, as well, and their ability to interact with each other and with adults.”
As of March 24, 19-and-counting state legislatures are taking action to encourage schools to have cellphone policies, according to an EdWeek policy tracker, with nine going as far as requiring school districts to adopt a cellphone policy or instituting a statewide ban.
Granting flexibility
While some bills would implement a statewide phone ban, a majority of legislation introduced this year analyzed by the Statehouse Reporting Network would give school districts the power to create their policy, and some bills would even provide funding.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, voiced support for “phone-free schools” in his final annual State of the State policy-setting address. He followed up on Feb. 19 with a proposal for $3 million in grants for public school districts to buy cell-blocking tools, like storage pouches.
Legislation sponsored by New Jersey Assembly Member Aura Dunn, R-Mendham, would direct public school districts to make their own rules and grant a total of $2 million for implementation.
Similar grant programs have been introduced in at least 10 states, including Arizona, Idaho and Minnesota.
Anderson, the Johns Hopkins professor, said grant programs are a good way for states to help school districts, especially districts with fewer resources, which may be stretched thin when left to enforce phone bans on their own.
In Iowa, Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, introduced legislation this session that would create a “minimum” cellphone policy that could take effect as soon as July. Schools could adopt that policy or a more stringent one.
“Cell phones are not only a distraction but a deterrent to development in the classroom,” Reynolds said in a statement.
Michigan’s Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has also gotten involved in the debate, spurring state Rep. Mark Tisdel, R-Rochester Hills, to file a bill that would implement phone policies depending on grade level, according to reporting from Statehouse Network partner Capital News Service.
The bill would bar students through fifth grade from bringing their phones to school, while middle and high school students would be allowed to bring phones to school but only be allowed to use them during certain parts of the day.
The Michigan Education Association has backed the policy, arguing it would allow districts to have some flexibility.
“We do not support statewide bans or funding mandates because every school is different,” said Thomas Morgan, the association’s press secretary. “We believe that each community requires local solutions that involve frontline educators and parents in the decision-making process.”
In Missouri, Rep. Kathy Steinhoff, D-Columbia, and Rep. Jamie Gragg, R-Ozark, filed bills that would require school districts to create a phone policy. Though the now-combined bill does not require schools to ban phones, it does ask them to restrict phone use during "instructional time."
Their proposal would also create a minimum policy, asking districts to draft a rule that blocks students from using their phones in the classroom.
“My thinking on this is that, when you've got a whole state that is trying to initiate this policy the way that we crafted it, hopefully, you are going to have districts that do different things, and then we can compare the results,” Steinhoff said.
Anderson said she favors more flexible approaches. She specifically noted that in under-resourced communities, parents may cling to their children's access to cellphones as a way to contact them. She also noted schools often lack the resources to implement cellphone bans effectively, adding to the strain on teachers.
“All zeroed-in on their phones”
Cooney has taught English at Joplin High School in Joplin since 2014. When his students returned from quarantine during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, he noticed a dramatic shift in the classroom.
“From the moment I arrived, I was just really shocked at how they were all zeroed-in on their phones,” he said. “When kids were coming back from pandemic isolation, closures, quarantine, the phone addiction was up to a never-before-seen level.”
Cooney said he believes a bell-to-bell ban is the best way to get kids reengaged at school.
“Fifty minutes and 500 square feet is not enough,” he said, referring to a typical classroom size and class period length. “It's got to be eight hours, and it's got to be the whole place, because attention has to relax.”
In 2023, Florida implemented legislation that barred students from using their phones during instructional time. But two school districts took the policy a step further, restricting the use of phones during the entire school day.
Parents have pushed back, arguing that total cellphone bans can create safety concerns when they are unable to contact their children throughout the school day.
In Broward County, which has the sixth-largest school district in the U.S., data collected last year shows communication during emergencies are one of the biggest complaints among parents and school staff.
School board member Lori Alhadeff said she would be open to repealing the restriction during lunch because that time belongs to the students.
Alhadeff, whose daughter was killed in a 2018 shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, pointed to a policy Broward is enacting to subside parents’ safety concerns — a wearable panic button for faculty to press, alerting law enforcement during an emergency.
“At the end of the day, parents want to know that their kids are safe,” Alhadeff said. “And I totally get that they want to hear from their child or communicate with their child, but in these emergency situations, we need to have the students' full attention to be able to listen, to hear directions, to know what to do and say, like (in) a lockdown situation or a fire drill.”
Some parents’ critiques of bell-to-bell bans haven’t wavered.
In Orange County, where the eighth-largest school district in the U.S. also enacted a full-day restriction on phones, parent Judi Hayes hasn’t favored the policy because of safety and practicality.
She said her son, a high school student, had his phone confiscated after he was using it to find the room for a student government meeting.
“I just feel like we live in an era of constant information, and it's not fair to our kids to cut them off from that,” Hayes said. “It's not fair to me as a parent to make me have to sit here and worry about it all day long.”
Cooney said he understands parents’ concerns about being able to reach their kids in case of an emergency. But he also worries that constant communication between parents and kids in the name of safety isn’t doing them any good. He pointed to a concept termed “safety-ism,” by Jonathan Haidt, a vocal opponent of student cellphone use and social media.
“This is not doing these kids any good, and nobody's willing to acknowledge that,” he said. “You've made it so that then, a kid never really is off the apron strings.”
Contributing to this story were Johan Villatoro and Ryland Russell from The University of Texas; Abby Thomas from Rowan University; Lauren Brensel from The University of Florida; Camila Bello Castro from Michigan State University and Natanya Friedham and Aidan Pittman from the University of Missouri. Bill analysis was conducted using BillTrack50.
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