Introducing: Little Sac, Big World!
/Welcome to Little Sac, Big World! Here, you’ll find bite-sized summaries of recent events directly affecting Sacajawea’s future. Posts will be concise, and written in terms of how the news directly affects Sac. From state legislative changes, to SPS board decisions, to new district policies, to city mandates, my plan is to connect goings-on in the wider world to our Sacajawea community here at home.
I am Julie Letchner, this year’s Advocacy Chair. You can reach me at advocacy@sacpta.org with questions or with topics you’d like to see covered here. I hope you join me!
This week’s news: New student cell phone policy coming in 2026-27
District leaders have proposed a three-tiered cell phone policy for rollout district-wide in 2026-27. The policy as proposed is likely to change before rollout, based on community and board input. The proposal includes a total student phone ban for elementary schools, and increasingly permissive policies for students at the middle and high school levels.
Read on for additional details.
SPS Floats New District-Wide Cell Phone Policy for 2026-27
SPS is developing a district-wide student cell phone policy, to be rolled out in the 2026-27 school year. At last week’s board meeting, staff proposed a three-tiered policy:
A slide from sps staff’s presentation to the board, outlining a three-tiered cell phone policy proposal.
Staff elaborated that the proposed Elementary policy means no student phones on-site at any time—not even if stored in lockers or bags. The Middle School policy allows phones on site, but requires that they be stored backpacks or lockers from first to last bell.
This proposal is likely to undergo revisions before becoming district policy. Public engagement on the topic is planned, though staff did not share an engagement plan or timeline. Board member comments also surfaced ideas that may end up factoring into an updated policy proposal, including:
A shared preference for the high school policy to shift closer to the middle school Away for the Day, to keep enforcement straightforward and to remove the burden of enforcement off of individual teachers.
A desire for clear policy exceptions for students requiring personal devices for accessibility (e.g. language translation) or medical use (e.g. glucose monitoring).
A concern that the elementary policy is untenable, in particular for children who coordinate after-school transportation using personal phones.
A desire for district-wide guidance stating what should happen when the cell phone policy is violated.
For more information, see the Seattle Times Article about the proposed cell phone policy, or the district’s presentation slides. The full presentation video (including a written transcript) is here; to jump straight to the board’s discussion of the proposal, go here.
How This Affects Sac
Sacajawea, like all other SPS schools, will be required to adhere to any new district cell phone policy. SPS is planning community engagement later this school year. I will post again here if & when input opportunities are announced.
In the meantime, the general public—that’s us!—is always welcome to sign up to give public testimony at school board meetings. The sign up link and policies can be found here.