Jim Thorpe Area School District Cell Phone Policy (2026)

Jim Thorpe Area School District in Carbon County enrolled 1,683 students in 2024-25 according to federal data. A 2025 lawsuit put its handling of student phones in court.

Jim Thorpe Area phone rules today

The Times News reported on June 26, 2025 that parents filed a federal civil rights suit on May 29, 2025 against the district, the high school principal and an assistant principal, alleging administrators searched a junior's phone without a warrant, probable cause or reasonable suspicion after he posted a captioned photo of the assistant principal to Snapchat. The complaint says they "slowly and methodically scrolled through all of his personal photos" even though they already had a printed copy of the post, and alleges, "The school board of the district made a conscious choice not to develop a policy addressing the search and confiscation of student cellphones." The defendants had not responded as of that report.

Weighing the state ban

In February 2026, Superintendent Robert Presley told his board, "There's really no teeth to it right now. It says we're going to ban them, now you guys go and do it." He added, "Do I agree that cellphones need to go away? Yes," and asked, "Do we put them in bags when they come in? Do we tell them they have to be turned off and in a calculator bag up here when they come in?" Technology Director Rob Moyzan said a vendor had pitched in-building equipment to block students' cellular data: "It was a really cool system, but it was a really high cost. I think it was close to like $60,000 a year."

What Act 117 requires of Jim Thorpe 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	Jim Thorpe Area today	What changes by 2027-28
No student use for the whole school day, including homeroom, lunch, recess and passing time	No whole-day ban found	Adopt a whole-day rule, including lunch and passing time.
The board decides how possession is restricted (taking phones is not required)	Undecided: bags or calculator caddies	Choose and state a possession method.
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 stated	Write in 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 stated	Teacher use must meet Act 117's three conditions; other exceptions capped at one day.
Written notice each year and on enrollment: a staffed way to reach your child, and how to sign up for emergency notifications	Not stated	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	District policies under review	Board policy posted, announced each year and verified to PDE. Consider a confiscation and search procedure alongside it.

Where LockedIn fits

Jim Thorpe's lawsuit grew out of confiscating and searching a phone. LockedIn locks students' own phones from an admin dashboard with nothing to collect, so enforcing the ban does not require staff to take or handle a student's phone, and it does not block cellular service the way the data blocker would.

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 Jim Thorpe

Act 117's definition of "school entity" includes private schools, approved private schools and nonpublic schools, so Jim Thorpe'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.