**Fort Bend ISD Cell Phone Procedures**

Please see information below regarding Fort Bend ISD cell phone procedures.

Dear parents and guardians,

Beginning January 3, 2017, to support our students’ safety, both arriving to school and leaving campus arriving home, we no longer keep confiscated cell phones overnight. The only exception to this practice is if a cell phone is part of a larger school investigation. We realize that for many families they expect a text or phone call from their child when they arrive at school in the morning and when they arrive at home in the afternoon each day. This change to our cell phone practice supports the communication practice between parent and child and helps ensure their safety traveling to and from school. Of course, students are still expected to comply with adult direction and expectations at school regarding when and how they use their cell phones/electronic devices.

 Fort Bend ISD procedures regarding cell phones are as follows: 

• To give greater safety to our students, confiscated cell phones will be returned at end of the school day (unless part of a larger investigation). 
• Confiscation is defined as the phone being taken up by an adult and turned into campus administration. A teacher taking up a phone during class and giving it back to the student at the end of the period is not counted as a confiscation.  

• 1st & 2nd confiscation:  $15 fee is not charged, parent is contacted and phone returned to student or parent at the end of the day.
• 3rd confiscation and all subsequent confiscations:  $15 fee is charged, parent is contacted and phone is returned to student or parent at the end of the day.
• With the importance of test security on state testing days, any phone confiscated during a state testing administration will have a $15 fee charged regardless of the number of times the student has had a phone confiscated. The phone will be returned at the end of the day unless it is part of a larger investigation.

If the $15 fee has not been paid when the phone is returned at the end of the day, the campus will add this to the “Fees and Fines list” for the student. 

To ensure consistency across all Fort Bend ISD campuses, we have communicated this procedure to all our principals and they in turn have communicated the procedures with their faculty and students. We appreciate your support. If you have any questions, please contact your school administration. 

Thank you,

Fort Bend ISD