Oregon House Bill HB3458

Oregon 2025 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/4/25
• Refer: 2/6/25

Caption

Relating to school policies regarding student use of personal electronic devices.

Summary

House Bill 3458 requires each Oregon school district board to adopt a policy governing student use of personal electronic devices, including cellular telephones, in schools. The Department of Education must develop at least two model policies with different levels of restrictiveness, and each district’s policy must be at least as restrictive as the department’s least restrictive model policy. Districts that fail to comply with the policy-adoption requirements may be treated as nonstandard under existing school district standards law. The bill also sets baseline rules for district policies. Districts must allow, or at least not prohibit without specific policy language, student use of devices for academic activities and independent communication. If a district uses technology-based curriculum, students may use their own devices but cannot be required to do so, and they must receive access to the same applications and electronic materials as students who do not use their own devices, including free access when those materials are provided free to others. District policies must include a process, timeline, and appeals procedure for student requests related to device use, and must be shared with staff, students, and parents or guardians. The bill preserves district authority to prohibit nonacademic communications, social media, entertainment use, and other device use unrelated to schoolwork or independent communication, and it continues to bar schools from demanding access to students’ email or personal online accounts.

Impact

HB 3458 would amend ORS 336.840 to create a statewide framework for local school district policies on student personal electronic devices. It would require the Oregon Department of Education to issue model policies and would impose minimum policy standards on district school boards, while also tying noncompliance to the state’s nonstandard district classification system under ORS 327.103. The bill would affect school districts, students, parents, and school staff by standardizing how phones and other devices are regulated in schools and by clarifying when student-owned devices may be used for instruction.

Sentiment

Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes in the provided materials, the measure appears to be framed as a policy standardization bill rather than a controversial overhaul. Its structure suggests support for both device access for educational purposes and district discretion to limit distractions, indicating an attempt to balance competing interests. No formal vote history or transcript evidence is available here to show broader legislative sentiment.

Contention

The main policy tension in HB 3458 is between allowing student access to personal devices for academic and independent communication purposes and preserving school authority to restrict phones for nonacademic use, social media, and entertainment. Another likely point of contention is the requirement that district policies comply with the Department of Education’s least restrictive model policy, which could be viewed by some as limiting local control. The bill also raises implementation questions for districts using technology-based curricula, especially around whether students must be given equivalent access to digital materials and how appeals processes for device-related requests will work.