- Similar bills were introduced during the 2025 legislative session but did not gain enough support from both chambers to make it to the governor’s desk.
In the first week of the 2026 legislative session, four bills were filed to ban cell phone use in Mississippi public school classrooms.
Two of those bills came out of the Senate, where SB 2099 was authored by State Senator Briggs Hopson (R) and SB 2069 was authored by Senator Dennis DeBar (R).
Two other bills were filed in the House of Representatives, HB 317 authored by State Representative Samuel Creekmore (R) and HB 46 authored by State Representative Omeria Scott (D). Both also aim to restrict cell phone use by students during instructional hours.
Similar bills were introduced during the 2025 legislative session but did not gain enough support from both chambers to make it to the governor’s desk.
Rep. Creekmore said he introduced the bill again this year because of his belief of its importance to young people’s education and their mental health.
“I still think it’s extremely important. I think the results that we’ve seen in other states and other communities have proven that it’s been effective,” Creekmore told Magnolia Tribune.
Senator DeBar, the chamber’s Education Committee chairman, said he is aware he and Senator Hopson filed mirror bills.
“I anticipate bringing that cell phone bill out maybe this week,” DeBar said. “We passed it last year. I hope we can get it through the finish line this year.”
The two Senate bills set similar goals, mandating that all public schools, including the state run schools of the Mississippi School for the Deaf and the Blind, the Mississippi School of the Arts, and the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, would be required to establish cell phone policies and have them in place by January 1, 2027 or face financial repercussions. The locally-developed policy must prevent the use and possession of cell phones by students during class.
Financial penalties will be levied for each day a school district fails to adopt such a policy after the January 1, 2027, deadline. The Senate’s bills state that the State Department of Education will be tasked with deducting a day’s worth of the school’s or district’s state funds under the total funding formula for each day past the deadline.
Suspension or expulsion of the student for violations of the policy are only to be used as a last resource, but the suspension or expulsion cannot be the result of “only a violation of the cell phone possession and use policy.”
The bills provide exceptions that allow a student to use a cell phone during the school day, such as “in the case of an emergency, or in response to a perceived threat of danger.”
Students can also have a cell phone while on campus if a registered nurse, physician or surgeon determines possession or use of a cell phone is medically necessary.
Cell phone use or possession can also be allowed if it is a required aspect or part of a student’s individualized education program.
The two bills filed in the House of Representatives are also similar, aiming to restrict cell phone use by students during instructional hours on a bell-to-bell standard. The bell-to-bell timeframe is defined as from the time the first bell of the school day rings to the time the dismissal bell rings at the day’s end.
Under the House bills, the cell phone restrictions will remain in place during lunch and in between class periods.
In terms of punishment for violations of the ban, the bills prohibit the removal of access to recess, and/or expulsion or suspension of a child. They also aim to prevent students from having access to social media sites while on school grounds using the school’s internet access, unless that access is for educational means.
The House bills require students to use “school-based communication tools and platforms” to communicate non-emergency situations to parents and parents would be required to use those same means to communicate emergencies to their children.
Students attending all K-12 grades are to leave cell phones off campus or turn them off and kept out of sight from the first bell to the last bell of the day, the House bills propose.
As to whether the Senate and House can agree on a bill this year, DeBar is hopeful.
“I hope so, I believe we can,” he said Monday. “I think we have some common ground and if we can get together, I think we can come up with a good compromise.”
Jeremy Pittari
