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Lockable cell phone pouches and police training. Here’s what Pa. schools can pay for under state grant

Supporters say taking cell phones away will improve students’ mental health. A Pennsylvania grant will give schools money to pay for lockable pouches.

In this 2022 file photo, a Mastbaum High School student holds a Yondr pouch, a phone storage system that creates phone-free spaces. Schools can receive state grant funding to purchase lockable cell phone pouches under the budget passed by Pa. lawmakers this week.
In this 2022 file photo, a Mastbaum High School student holds a Yondr pouch, a phone storage system that creates phone-free spaces. Schools can receive state grant funding to purchase lockable cell phone pouches under the budget passed by Pa. lawmakers this week.Read moreJessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
    by Trebor Maitin
    Published 

Pennsylvania schools will be able to purchase lockable cell phone pouches under a state grant program aimed at improving mental health and school safety.

The commonwealth dedicated more than $120 million toward the grant program over the next fiscal year in the state budget signed Thursday.

“Kids spend so much time on social media and using their smartphones that it’s taking a toll on them mentally, emotionally, and academically,” State Sen. Ryan Aument (R., Lancaster) said in a news release.

Aument authored a school cell phone ban that passed the Senate overwhelmingly earlier this month and awaits consideration in the Pennsylvania House.

Schools that receive funding for the lockable pouches must implement a cell phone ban during the school day. Other uses for the funding include diversion programs, student risk-assessment training, and counseling services.

Each school that applies for a grant will receive at least $100,000.

The mental health investment is the latest into what began as a school security grant program in the wake of the massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. Mental health has taken an outsized role in the debate over preventing violence in schools, and Pennsylvania’s allotments to the grant program in recent years have accordingly focused on mental health.

In addition to lockable cell phone pouches, police training for security guards is among the new uses for the grants, which accompanied a larger $1 billion education package fast-tracked through the legislature Thursday.

“I’m proud of this investment in education, but it is just the start, not the end, of our commitment to equitably funding our schools,” House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D., Philadelphia) said in a statement.

A wave of states is trying to stem cell phone use in classrooms. Neighboring Ohio in May required all school districts in the state to create cell phone use policies, while Indiana and Florida have banned classroom cell phone usage outright.

Trebor Maitin is an intern with the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents Association. He can be reached at trebormmaitin@gmail.com.