WAYNE COUNTY, W.Va. (WCHS) — Counties across the state are required now, by law, to return to school this year with a cell phone and electronic devices policy.

On Tuesday night, Cabell County became the latest to adopt a resolution to align their standing policy with the new state law.

Cabell County Schools Superintendent Tim Hardesty explained during the meeting that Cabell already had a policy in place, but it was lacking definitions for what devices were included and what would be considered instructional time. The board passed a resolution to hold them in compliance while they work through the process of introducing and passing a new policy.

“We had a policy on the books that did not do all of these things that are required now," Hardesty said during the meeting.

House Bill 2003, which passed during the 2025 session, bans students from having access to their phones during instructional time and requires counties to develop policies to reflect this.

Over in Wayne County, Superintendent Todd Alexander said they have been in compliance since last August with their own policy they put in place, before legislation was passed.

“It was obvious cell phones were a distraction in the learning environment, so we took up the issue August of last year," Alexander said. "Then in September, the board passed a policy addressing cell phone use, and it is in compliance with the legislation that was later passed. Basically, what it says is students are not allowed to have cell phones during instructional time."

According to the legislation, counties can issue a campus-wide ban of cell phones and personal electronic devices. They can also allow them on campus, but if they do that, they must provide ways for the phones to be stored during instruction time.

Alexander said they leave it up to the schools how they want students to store their phones. Some ask students to leave them in their lockers or in cubbies in the classroom. This also includes smart watches, smart glasses and headphones. He said they have already seen differences in limiting distractions, cyberbullying, and poor behavior.

“Where the rubber meets the road for any policy is actually the enforcement of the policy, and so we had some schools that reported that it had made a significant change in their environment. Those schools were schools that were having students store their cell phones in their lockers," Alexander said.

There are exemptions in the law, including students with an approved medical need or if it is part of the instruction in class. It is not required to have a policy for staff, too, but it was something that they did add in Wayne.

“We have a separate policy that addresses staff and talks about this same type of thing, that personal use of electronic devices is not to occur during instructional time.”

The law went into effect in July. Cabell's new resolution goes into effect on Aug. 13.