When Brighton High School's roughly 2,435 students walk through the doors on Monday, Aug. 17, their cellphones, smartwatches and AI glasses will need to stay off and out of sight during every class period.

The Canyons School District Board of Education unanimously approved an updated device policy on June 16, implementing Utah's new S.B. 69, the state's school device law. Board member Amanda Oaks made the motion; Karen Pedersen seconded it. Assistant legal counsel Jeff Christensen presented the policy, which passed without changes between its first reading on June 2 and final approval two weeks later.

Here's the practical breakdown for Brighton High families:

During class: All personal electronic devices must be powered off or on silent and stored out of sight. The one exception: a teacher may specifically allow device use for an educational purpose.

Before school, lunch and passing periods: Students can use their phones and watches freely, as long as the use isn't disruptive. Brighton's 40-minute lunch period gives students more phone time than peers at block-schedule schools, which have 30-minute lunches.

Always allowed: Devices used to respond to a health or safety threat, a school-wide emergency, the SafeUT Crisis Line, or a student's IEP or Section 504 accommodation. Medical necessity is also covered.

The high school rules are actually unchanged from prior years. What's new is the legal framework behind them and the stricter standard at Canyons middle schools, where a full bell-to-bell ban now applies. At schools like Butler Middle and Eastmont Middle, students cannot use personal devices at any point during the school day, including lunch.

That distinction matters. S.B. 69, signed by Gov. Spencer Cox on March 18, set a statewide default of no device use during the entire school day. Canyons chose to exercise the law's provision allowing districts to adopt their own policies, keeping the more permissive lunch-and-passing-period exceptions for high schoolers.

"I am convinced more than ever that a bell-to-bell cell phone ban is the single most important thing that we can do for our students in our schools today," Cox said in February, when he and Sen. Lincoln Fillmore (R-South Jordan) advocated for the bill at the Capitol. Fillmore sponsored S.B. 69 alongside Rep. Doug Welton.

A district survey presented at the board's March 3 meeting found that 96.2% of Canyons students use cellphones and 46.3% check them every 15 minutes. Nearly 59% reported that screen time interferes with sleep.

Parents who need their child to briefly use a device during non-instructional time can request access through the school under a provision required by S.B. 69.

The next Canyons Board of Education meeting is Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 9361 S. 300 E., Sandy, with a study session at 4:30 p.m. and business meeting at 7 p.m.