Over the summer, the 89th Texas Legislature session transformed the Texas education system with a series of reforms that range from the disciplinary rules of House Bill 6 to the authorization to display the Ten Commandments of Senate Bill 10. However, the bill that has won the most attention from students is House Bill 1481, which banned the use of personal communication devices inside the school environment.

HB-1481, signed into law by Governor Abbott on June 20, requires school districts to implement policies prohibiting students from using personal communication devices during the school day. In compliance, Austin Independent School District has implemented a policy that utilizes a system of four offenses, which involves confiscating devices, holding them for 48 hours, and conferencing with parents. While many believe HB-1481 is working exactly as intended, there are simply too many drawbacks. The bill was to go into effect on September 18.

The first major issue is the prohibition of communication with their parents. Not only are students afraid of being unable to contact their parents during possible major emergencies like school shootings, for which Texas is ranked second in the U.S., according to World Population Review, but students have also pointed out the inconveniences of losing communication. Some explained that they are not able to readily call home if they are feeling ill or if practice is canceled. Despite the fact that students can go to either the office or counselors to make phone calls, surveys from the LASA Liberator staff have shown that they might feel uncomfortable announcing to an adult the need to call. This results in them deciding not to call at all. Banning communication devices would obviously affect the communication between students and their parents. HB-1481 creates a huge inconvenience for students, as they would have to ask an adult to call home, even if it was just for something small. The problem with communication devices is that while they can serve as distractions, they can also serve as useful tools. HB-1481 introduced a drastic change, removing both the benefits and drawbacks of personal communication devices.

Another issue is the enforceability of the law. HB-1481 does not specify any specific ways to enforce the policy; the bill hands that problem to the district, and the district assigns the role to the administrators, meaning that certain schools might handle the policy differently from others. While the majority of the Liberator staff believe that the bill has been effective at reducing the usage of personal communication devices, they have also noticed that there are still people using their phones in secrecy. Cellphones aren’t as severe a problem at LASA compared to other schools, largely because LASA already implemented a strict cellphone policy last year. Compared to the new devices policy, the policy from last year was much easier to enforce. Under last year’s policy, cellphones only had to be kept away during class. The new policy not only prohibits the use of all personal communication devices but also applies throughout the entire school day.  The range over which HB-1481 covers makes enforcement  much more difficult 

Evolving from the question regarding the enforcement of HB-1481 is the matter of convenience again. LASA has already had a cellphone policy during 2024-2025, which students may have gotten used to, but now there is this new policy. Students described that they are unable to take pictures, record videos, create contacts for after-school projects, and are experiencing an overall decrease in work efficiency. HB-1481 has done its job in reducing the use of communication devices during the school day, but at the same time, it has created many more problems for the students. 

On top of losing the conveniences of personal technology, students are now forced to use district-issued Chromebooks. There is an argument that if everyone uses Chromebooks, then there is an even playing field where family income does not affect the learning quality of their children. This argument only works if Chromebooks were truly conducive to students’ learning over personal laptops. Many students are unfamiliar with the district Chromebooks and find them clunky and slow to operate. However, this argument also falls short, as the Chromebook policy creates new inequalities, such as some students receiving older, slower devices, and many struggling with unfamiliar technology, defeating the idea of an equal learning experience. This results in some students being faced with both unfamiliar and worse devices. The perceived equality of HB-1481 isn’t very equal after all; therefore, students should just stick to the system they are most familiar with.

They have seen more focus and more socializing, as well as less cheating. HB-1481 has done a good job at LASA in keeping personal communication devices more in check, yet it is still the popular opinion that, despite the bill’s effectiveness at keeping devices away, there are other factors that our policy does not accommodate. Personal technology is both harmful and useful to learning. Whether technology serves as a tool or a distraction is solely dependent on the student using it. There is a better solution than simply eliminating the issue. The problem with HB-1481 does not lie within its effectiveness, but rather the inconvenience it brings.