One of the goals set forth by Governor Kim Reynolds for the 2025 Iowa Legislative Session was restricting cell phone usage in school classrooms.

The bill proposed by the governor, and put forth by the legislative chambers was recently signed into law, and will go into effect on July 1st. Representative for District 23 Ray Sorensen tells Raccoon Valley Radio another reason that brought about the start of the bill.

“Everybody was hearing from constituents about not only schools that had this already in place and how well it was working, but other states as well. And just hearing the need from constituents as we went door to door that something needed to be done about classroom use in schools.”

Sorensen mentions that the goal of the bill is to reduce distractions by keeping students off their phones during instructional time. He adds that districts in Iowa that already have this kind of policy in place have seen higher grades, a lower amount of suspensions, and more engagement in the classroom.