New rules limit phone use in classes

The Esko school district updated its student handbooks to tighten rules on student cell phone use, including no phone on students while they sit at their desks.

At Monday's school board meeting, superintendent Aaron Fischer introduced the revisions which are intended to standardize the rules for all the classrooms. The Minnesota legislature in the last session directed schools to set cell phone use policies by March 15, 2025. The legislation did not directly prescribe how the policies should be written, but the intent was to make classrooms free of phones.

Some schools have no policy, and some...