Altoona Area School District Cell Phone Policy (2026)

Altoona Area School District enrolled 6,852 students in 2024-25 according to federal data. Its high school already describes itself as bell to bell, with phones in lockers.

Altoona Area phone rules today

Altoona Area High School principal Andrew Neely told the student paper, the Mountain Echo, in March 2026: "We already have a zero tolerance policy with having to put phones in their lockers when students get to school."

He added that many students ignore the rule and the discipline record shows that, "but I don't foresee any changes to our own policies based on the new legislation." The district's 2025-26 Secondary Code of Conduct covers the rule.

What Act 117 requires of Altoona Area by 2027-28

Gov. Josh Shapiro approved SB 1014 on October 26, 2026. It is Act 117 of 2026, and it took effect that day. The text is Printer's No. 1697 on palegis.us. Every school entity must adopt a bell-to-bell policy by the start of the 2027-28 school year.

Act 117 requires	Altoona Area today	What changes by 2027-28
No student use for the whole school day, including homeroom, lunch, recess and passing time	Phones in lockers from arrival (high school)	No change in scope. Confirm elementary rules.
The board decides how possession is restricted (taking phones is not required)	Lockers	No change needed.
Required exceptions: documented medical need of the student or an immediate family member, IEP or 504, English learner translation, limited teacher-approved instructional use	Not confirmed	Check for all four required exceptions.
Optional: a principal may approve another exception for up to one school day, with notice to the superintendent within 5 days after	Not confirmed	Optional one-day principal exception with notice within 5 days.
Written notice each year and on enrollment: a staffed way to reach your child, and how to sign up for emergency notifications	Not confirmed	Written notice each year and on enrollment of a staffed contact method and emergency sign-up.
Tell families, teachers and students about the policy each year; verify to PDE within 5 business days that it is posted online	Code of Conduct	Annual notice and PDE posting verification.

Neely's point that many students ignore the locker rule matters more than the text. Act 117 requires "appropriate enforcement and oversight provisions" at each building.

Where LockedIn fits

Altoona's rule is right on paper but hard to enforce, as the principal said. LockedIn locks students' own phones from an admin dashboard with nothing to collect, so a phone that skips the locker is still locked. It runs alongside locker storage.

Act 117 has no general student emergency-use exception. The closest tool is the optional principal exception, which is capped at one school day and reported to the superintendent within five days afterward. LockedIn's Emergency Mode unlocks every phone on campus at once, so districts should have counsel review how that fits their emergency procedures and Act 117's exception rules.

Private and independent schools in the Altoona area

Act 117's definition of "school entity" includes private schools, approved private schools and nonpublic schools, so the Altoona area's private, independent and parochial schools need their own bell-to-bell policy by 2027-28. For those schools, the governing body plays the role the superintendent plays in a district, including receiving notice of any principal-approved exception.

Draft a policy that tracks Act 117's required exceptions and family notices with our policy generator.