Public school students across Alabama, including those in Huntsville City Schools, are stepping into their first day of classes with a new phone policy for the 2025-2026 school year.

The State of Alabama enacted the Freeing our Classrooms of Unnecessary Screens for Safety (FOCUS) Act, or HB166, during the 2025 legislative session. It largely bans cellphones and other handheld electronics in schools, even during lunch or in the hallway.

According to Education Week, Alabama joins 30 other states and the District of Columbia in enacting this rule.

Huntsville City School policy

Each school board created its own policy that falls within the lines of the state law. In Huntsville City Schools, students can keep their phones in their backpacks, but they cannot use them during school hours. Some school systems are using locking pouches, like the Yondr pouch, to lock up students’ phones during the school day.

Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Clarence Sutton said they are not pursuing that route because it would cost approximately $500,000.

“We started off trusting our community, our students,” Sutton said. “We’ve had a cell phone policy in the past, not this stringent, so we are asking them to put it up in their backpack. But we know that our community wants their students to have access to a phone after school or with other activities, so we trust them.”

Before the FOCUS Act, Huntsville City schools did not allow students to use their phones during instructional time. While that rule was enforced, there were no serious consequences for breaking the rule. Now, students could face serious punishments for using their phones during the school day.

READ MORE: Stanley cups, cellphones: 4 things your student might not be able to bring to an Alabama school this fall

“The first time, we’re communicating with you and your parents, saying, here’s the policy, they had the phone out,” Dr. Sutton explained. “We’re asking them not to use their phones. Second time, we may ask you to turn the phone into the office until the end of the day. We will still contact your parent. And then the third time, we follow our Code of Conduct, which will mean some in-school consequences, and then if you continue five or six times down the line, maybe some out-of-school consequences.”

Reactions are mixed

Reactions to the new policy have been mixed, according to Dr. Sutton. Parent and school board member Andrea Alvarez said the state rule is governmental overreach.

“Alabama claims to be a conservative state when we have just allowed a law to be passed that limits your use of a non-illegal possession,” Alvarez said. “There is no law about the age of having a cell phone. There is nothing illegal about having a cell phone, nothing. (…) Where’s limited government policy? Law should honestly be about safety and security.”

She said state laws like the FOCUS ACT limit the power of locally elected officials, such as school board members.

“That’s really frustrating for me as a board member, like I am elected, I have no power, because year after year, they passed a law taking away our local power for what we want our local schools,” Alvarez said. “What do we have a school board for if we can’t make our own policy, if we can’t run our own school system, if we can’t determine what’s working and what’s not working?”

She says teachers prefer students having phones in the classrooms because they can use them as tools. They can take photos of PowerPoint slides for notes, record lessons and more. Dr. Sutton says teachers are glad to have phones out of classrooms because phones can be a distraction to the lesson.

The policy goes into effect on the first day of school, Aug. 4. Dr. Sutton says the grace period will only be one day.