Scranton School District Cell Phone Policy (2026-27)

Scranton School District enrolled 9,237 students in 2024-25 according to federal data. Its high school rules say the ban grew out of what school resource officers were seeing.

Scranton phone rules today

Scranton's 2026-27 high school policies (Section C, "The Use of Electronic Devices"):

• Why: resource officers documented students using phones to plan fights, harass others, coordinate vaping in bathrooms and vandalize.
• No use during the school day in school buildings on district property, and no use or possession on property, buses or activities without permission of the principal, a teacher or staff.
• Exceptions: district devices for instruction under teacher supervision, and IEP or 504 plans. The board supplies devices students need.
• Covered devices include smartwatches and earbuds. Recording is never allowed during the school day.
• Emergencies: "During school wide emergency situations students are not allowed to use any electronic device unless permission is granted by the principal."

Search results describe high school and intermediate students keeping phones in lockers and elementary students in bookbags.

What Act 117 requires of Scranton 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	Scranton today	What changes by 2027-28
No student use for the whole school day, including homeroom, lunch, recess and passing time	No use during the school day	No change in scope.
The board decides how possession is restricted (taking phones is not required)	Lockers or bookbags reported	Confirm the method is in the policy.
Required exceptions: documented medical need of the student or an immediate family member, IEP or 504, English learner translation, limited teacher-approved instructional use	District devices for instruction; IEP/504	Add documented medical (student or family), English learner translation and the limited instructional-use exception for personal phones.
Optional: a principal may approve another exception for up to one school day, with notice to the superintendent within 5 days after	Principal, teacher or staff permission	Cap other exceptions at one school day 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 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	Policy in handbook	Annual notice and PDE posting verification.

Scranton is one of the few districts that addresses emergencies directly, and it does so in the same direction as Act 117: no student use during a schoolwide emergency unless the principal allows it.

Where LockedIn fits

Scranton's principal-permission rule for emergencies lines up with how LockedIn's Emergency Mode works: one decision at the top that unlocks every phone at once. LockedIn locks students' own phones from an admin dashboard with nothing to collect, and can run 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 Scranton

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