Conroe Independent School District (CISD) has reviewed the impact of its new cellphone policy, which was implemented last year in compliance with Texas House Bill 1481. The policy prohibits students from using personal communication devices, such as cellphones, smartwatches, and tablets, on public school campuses during the school day.
Policy Breakdown
Students found using their cellphones are given disciplinary referrals by their teachers and have their phones confiscated until the end of the day. After a high amount of referrals, the students’ parents must come to the school to retrieve the phone themselves. CISD issued 12,880 cellphone referrals this year, with 46.6% of all total high school referrals being cellphone-related.
Mark Murrell, CISD assistant superintendent for high schools, presented the report to the board on June 16. Murrell stated that the district will tighten up the policy and ensure that everyone knows they are serious about enforcing it. The district has the ability to charge fees by state law but has not done so at this time.
By the Numbers
The district tracks cellphone referral numbers throughout the year in four periods, each lasting nine weeks. Period 3 saw the highest jump in high school discipline referrals at 3,316, before a drop to 2,570 at the end of the year. Murrell said that as of now, the district can’t draw too many conclusions from this drop, but officials hope it will be a trend going into next year as the policy becomes normalized districtwide.
Junior high saw the opposite trend, with referral rates continuing to rise from Period 1 at 97 referrals to 302 referrals in Period 4 at the end of the year. Murrell said that a reason behind the relatively low number at junior high compared to high school is that many junior high students don’t have cellphones to begin with.
Despite issuing 12,880 total disciplinary referrals for the school year, the number of repeat offenders was relatively low. For the 2025-26 school year, 77.2% of all students at the high school campuses had no more than two disciplinary referrals. At the junior high level, 89.9% of students had no more than two referrals out of the 302 issued for the year.
Original reporting: Community Impact — Houston — read the source article.
