Virginia

Distraction Free Schools Virginia is part of a coalition of parents, educators, and school administrators united in calling for legislative action and policy changes to address the overuse of smartphones, social media, and School-Tech in Virginia schools. We have a state advocacy team as part of the national Distraction-Free Schools Policy Project, led by the Becca Schmill Foundation and Smartphone Free Childhood U.S.

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What We Have Accomplished:​

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1. Bell-to-Bell Phone Free Schools

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​Virginia has been a leader in the movement to provide students with the best learning environment possible. In the summer of 2024, then-Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) issued Executive Order 33, strongly encouraging all Virginia public schools to be phone-free for students. With support from members of the Distraction Free Schools Virginia team, Virginia passed a bell-to-bell phone-free bill during the 2025 legislative session, enacting one of the first such bans in the US. There were a few loopholes, and our Virginia team was there again pushing for SB 108, requiring all schools (K-12) to be phone-free, bell-to-bell, beginning with the 2026-2027 school year. SB 108 was signed into law by Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) in the spring of 2026.

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     2. Social Media Free Schools

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Our Virginia team worked closely with Senator Chris Head (R) to introduce legislation (SB 245) requiring each local school board to adopt a measure restricting schools from using social media as the sole means of communication with students for extracurricular events activities. This bill was passed and signed into law in the spring of 2026.

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What’s Next?

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1. Social Media Free Schools

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​While SB 245 is a fantastic first step in ensuring that students are not required to use dangerous algorithm-driven platforms, the legislation falls short of Distraction-Free Schools' goal of completely eliminating required social media use between schools and students. While adults using these platforms will never be part of our platform, we want to close loopholes, as we did with bell-to-bell phone-free policies. We will need help advocating for these restrictions during the fall of 2026 and the spring of 2027. No student should ever feel pressured or compelled to use social media to participate in school-sponsored activities.

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     2. Safe School Tech

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While the goal of teaching kids to be digitally literate was initially well-intentioned, research and personal anecdotes over the past decade have shown that much of school tech use is ineffective for learning, exposes students to safety risks, and is developmentally inappropriate for most students. The Distraction Free Schools Virginia team is working with legislators to amend how technology is used in all K-12 classrooms. This is our biggest push yet, and as we try to meet our goals, we need your help!

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• Please sign our Letter of Support, which will be shared with our state legislators. Our advocates are busy reaching out to and meeting with state legislators to support our model legislation, and every signature added greatly supports their advocacy efforts. Our current model legislation includes: Social Media-Free Schools and Safe School Tech.

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• Reach out to legislators to urge them to support legislation that tightens up language in cell phone policy, supports social media-free schools, and safe school tech. We have template materials to help people with this outreach. You can also indicate your interest in doing this work by signing our Letter of Support.

 

• Join our advocacy team by filling out the Letter of Support!

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Our efforts are supported by DMVUnplugged.org and VirginiaUnplugged.org.