The House and Senate have a compromise in place that will ban cell phone use in all Oklahoma public schools, but just for one year.

The Oklahoma House is moving forward with the state Senate’s version of a bill to ban all cell phones bell-to-bell in Oklahoma public and charter schools.

“What you have in front of you like I said is a grand compromise in which you have a policy for a year, and then following that, every district would have an opt out,” State Rep. Chad Caldwell (R-Enid).

Both chambers passed their own bell-to-bell cell phone bans earlier this session, but the Senate would only pass a ban if it lasted for just one year.

“I would say this is a try it before you buy it kind of policy,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell said the House will accept the Senate’s one-school-year-only bill.

It’s a compromise that means, just for the 2025/2026 school year, every district in the state will have the same cell phone policy. That’s put it away for most of the day.

The only thing that will vary district by district is that they will define what is considered an emergency in which a student can have their phone out and use it.

“The House is in alignment. The governor is in alignment. Everyone agrees we have to do something,” State Sen. Ally Seifried (R-Claremore)

Seifried, who has been working with Caldwell, said that many senators felt a one-year ban would show that the policy does work, but after that one year, it will be up to districts to come up with their own policies on how to handle cell phones.

“People asked me if we only want to do this for one year. I said, ‘No, I hope they do this forever.’ But I’m asking them to do the complete best practice for one year, and then they continue to come back and adjust it. My hope is that schools continue to have a policy,” Seifried said.

There are opponents of the bill who say nothing in state law says a district cannot ban the use of phones on their own and they consider it a violation of local control for the state to tell districts what to do about cell phones, even if it’s just for one year.

The compromise has one more vote to go in the state House and then it will head to the governor’s desk, where he has said he is eager to sign it and even called for a ban in his State of the State address back in February.