By Nuria Martinez-Keel, Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY — After resurrecting and amending a year-old bill, the Oklahoma Senate advanced a measure to make a statewide school cellphone ban permanent.
House Bill 1276, originally filed in 2025, now returns to the House in its amended form after passing the Senate with bipartisan support.
Oklahoma law prohibits students from using cellphones and personal devices for the entire school day. The ban has received a positive response from teachers, parents and district leaders since it was implemented this school year. The policy, though, is mandatory only for this academic year and soon will become optional for districts unless the Legislature takes further action.
“I said I wouldn’t bring it back unless it was overwhelmingly popular,” a co-author of the law, Sen. Ally Seifried, R-Claremore, said. “I can’t go anywhere without someone bringing this up to me.”
Seifried and Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, both filed bills this session to permanently encode the school cellphone ban after writing the original yearlong policy. Neither of their bills were heard in committee before a March 5 deadline.
Instead, the Senate placed an amended 2025 cellphone ban bill on its floor agenda Wednesday and advanced it to the House with a 41-5 vote. The legislation, HB 1276, had passed the House and the Senate Education Committee last year but hadn’t been heard on the Senate floor.
Multiple senators spoke in favor of the bill before Wednesday’s vote, even one lawmaker who voted against the cellphone ban last year.
Sen. Spencer Kern, R-Duncan, said he opposed it at the advice of his local school superintendents. He said many of those district leaders have since told him they’re thankful for the policy.
“I got to see firsthand at (school) lunch that children were playing with each other, playing cards,” he said on the Senate floor. “They were talking to each other. They were engaging. They weren’t walking with their heads down in the halls. I’m very thankful that the author brought this back again.
“And this year, I will be a yes.”
