SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane Public Schools’ no-phones policy has led to a significant increase in student participation in extracurricular activities over the past year.
More students are coming to school, putting their phones down and getting involved with extracurriculars at Spokane Public Schools.
Nearly a year after the district implemented it’s no-phone policy and launched the Engage IRL initiative, SPS said it has seen the results it was hoping for.
The no-phone policy, introduced in August 2024, keeps elementary and middle school students unplugged throughout the day, while high schoolers are allowed limited phone use during lunch and passing periods.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Spokane schools see impact of no-phone policy halfway through year
“I mean everyone, including me was a little bit disappointed about the phone policy because, you know, teenagers like to be on their phones,” said Maya Deguzman, a senior at Shadle Park High School.
The district’s Engage IRL program aims to match students with clubs they’re interested in or create new opportunities for them to explore.
According to Shadle Park senior Mayumi Deguzman (Maya’s twin), the policy has encouraged more face-to-face interaction.
“It’s allowed individuals to actually have face-to-face conversations with each other and actually interact with one another in a way that we hadn’t seen before when we had our phones out,” Mayumi said.
Teachers and students have noticed that putting phones away has led to greater engagement with the world and people around them.
“Just talking about the different clubs and activities that exist within our school has motivated kids to actually step out of their comfort zone and explore these different activities for themselves,” Mayumi said.
Since the Engage IRL program began in fall 2024, nearly 3,000 more students have joined extracurricular activities. The district said students involved in these activities have higher daily attendance rates compared to those who are not.
“We noticed that a lot with the middle school football. A lot of the kids that were absent, well now they’re at school every single day during football season because they have something to look forward to and were connected to that, to their coaches and to their peers,” said Aaliyah Ashley-Meek, an engagement navigator for the district.
Looking ahead, the district hopes to expand the program and get even more students involved, especially in the early grades.
“The goal is just to get more kids doing something and we want to focus on our K-2s, and getting them some opportunities to do more activities,” Ashley-Meek said.
District leaders say the proposed Together Spokane schools and parks levy and bond would help that effort by creating more spaces across the city for student activities.
“I think it’s important and it gets us connected and more focused on our school work and just less green and more reality,” Maya said.
For more information on SPS’s Engage IRL initiative and the activities it offers, visit www.engageirl.com.
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