Pupil safety: comprehensive school safety plans: use of smartphones.

Assembly Member Hoover's legislation refines California's comprehensive school safety plan requirements to address smartphone use policies, ensuring schools cannot prohibit students from using phones during emergencies or perceived threats. The measure amends Education Code provisions that currently require school districts to develop smartphone usage policies by July 2026.

The bill establishes that when school safety plans include smartphone regulations, they must preserve students' ability to use devices in specified emergency situations. This aligns safety plan protocols with existing state law that protects student phone access during crises while allowing schools to otherwise restrict classroom phone use.

Under the amended code, schools must continue evaluating and updating their comprehensive safety plans annually, maintaining publicly accessible files of all safety-related materials. The Department of Education remains responsible for providing compliance guidance through a posted checklist for developing these plans.

This modification occurs within California's broader framework for school safety planning, which requires schools to address various security measures including disaster procedures, discipline policies, discrimination prevention, and emergency response protocols. The smartphone provision adds to existing requirements that schools establish procedures for safe campus environments while preserving essential communication capabilities during emergencies.