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Virginia school boards could soon have greater authority to shape their own rules for cell phones and smart devices after legislation cleared the General Assembly on Friday.

House Bill 1961 and its companion, Senate Bill 738, now head to Gov. Glenn Youngkin for consideration. Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, introduced the House measure, while Sen. Stella Pekarsky, D-Fairfax, sponsored the Senate version.

The legislation would require school divisions to establish device policies while allowing communities to adopt rules suited to students of different ages. It also protects students with disabilities who depend on electronic devices to communicate.

The proposal responds to concerns about smartphones’ effects on children’s health and classroom performance. Research has associated heavy phone and social media use with poorer well-being and academic outcomes, though devices can also provide educational and communication tools.

A similar bill that would have allowed school boards to prohibit phones and other handheld communication devices during school hours failed last year. Many schools, however, had already imposed restrictions of their own.

Rasoul said the new legislation offers more local flexibility than Youngkin’s existing guidelines. It would also prevent a student from being suspended or expelled solely for breaking a school’s phone policy.

“We just wanted to ensure that this new cell phone policy wasn’t weaponized against the students and that would lead to suspension and expulsion,” Rasoul said.

Schools could still remove students from a classroom for disruptive behavior, he added, but a phone-policy violation by itself could not be used to expel them.

Youngkin signed Executive Order 33 last summer, directing his administration to establish phone-free policies as concerns grew about children’s mental health and declining academic performance.

The order cited research indicating that adolescents who spend more than three hours per day on social media are twice as likely to experience poor mental health. It also referenced findings that children average 4.8 hours of daily social media use and that students who use phones during class learn less and receive lower grades.

State guidelines that took effect Jan. 1 require elementary, middle and high school students to remain phone-free throughout the school day. Middle and high school students may use their devices before or after school.

Divisions can tailor their specific rules to local needs. The guidelines also provide exemptions for students with disabilities and English Learner students who have documented language barriers.

At a Senate Education and Health subcommittee hearing last month, Pekarsky described the response to Youngkin’s order as “successful” and “positive.” She said putting the requirements into state law would preserve local involvement and make clear that every division must adopt a policy.

“We just need to codify this to make sure that everyone knows that you have to have a policy, you have to talk with your community [and] discuss what policy works for you,” Pekarsky said.