A growing number of states -- 35 -- have passed laws or policies limiting students’ cellphone use in the classroom, but South Dakota isn’t yet one of them.

Whether the state should enact a statewide ban on cellphones or leave it up to the local control of school districts and school boards has been debated by multiple gubernatorial candidates.

Last year, legislators on the Study Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Regulation of Internet Access by Minors initially planned to write a bill on student phone use in schools for the 2025 legislative session, but dropped the issue after hearing a report that a majority of school districts already had device policies in place at the local level.

Those with a policy had either a full ban, a classroom-by-classroom approach, or allowed s

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