Governor Hochul made it official Tuesday – all New York public schools will be required to be smartphone-free environments beginning next school year – and three Albany High School students got to be a part of the announcement.
The governor announced that her plan to implement bell-to-bell restrictions on Internet-enabled cell phones will take effect at the start of the 2025-26 school year. Each school district will be able to determine the procedures that best fit for their schools. A City School District of Albany committee has been working on these plans throughout the school year and will finalize details later this spring.
Albany High students Mwajumba Kabwe, Naya Snide and Xavier Soto attended the governor’s event at the Latham headquarters of New York State United Teachers.
Also representing the district at Tuesday's announcement were Board of Education President Sridar Chittur, Ph.D., Superintendent Joseph Hochreiter, Albany High Principal Jodi Commerford, Assistant Director of Pupil Personnel Services Karla McDowell, and Albany Public School Teachers Association President Laura Franz and Resolution Specialist Jim Grove.
