Saskatchewan is bringing in a new policy to schools that will see cell phones banned from K-12 classrooms across the province.
Keith Keating, the director of education for the Southeast Cornerstone Public School Division (SECPSD) says that the policy will be handled mainly by individual schools.
"That would be determined on an individual school basis and conversations between teachers and administrators. So each school division across the province will have their policy, but will fall within the range of what the province is laid out in terms of their provincial policy."
Kesting expects to hear some agreement and disagreement from teachers and parents.
"Not a lot of reaction yet, it's the summertime. But I'm sure like most policies that come down, there'll be some that will be very in favor and some that will disagree with it."
Keating is supportive of having phones in class so long as they are being used for education.
"I think that cell phones have a place in the classroom with that 9 to 12 level if they use them for educational purposes. However, I know most of our schools had a cell phone policy in place previously that would have covered many of these issues. So, it will be a bit of a change for some, but it won't be a huge change for many."
Keating says that some students in the division will still be able to access their cell phones, either because of medical or study reasons.
"There are some cases where devices are used for medical reasons for students, those would be an exemption, or there might be times where they would be using cell phones within a classroom to do research, for example, and those kinds of things."
Exceptions will exist for students from grades 9 to 12 who are using that for educational purposes and students who have medical exceptions.