The Friction Audit

“Wireless communication device” does not include any device that a school district or teacher has directly issued to, provided for, or required a student to possess and use for educational purposes.

105 ILCS 5/10-20.88(a) · SB 2427 · signed and effective July 28, 2026 · policies due by 2027–28

The statute regulates one channel of the screen ecology and exempts the rest by definition. Every Illinois district will be compliant by adopting the ISBE template. None will know, on that basis alone, whether anything about learning changed.

ISBE said as much in its own model policy: teachers estimate one in three students are using laptops at school for nonacademic purposes. The state named the second problem in the same document that directs districts to solve the first.

• Your draft wireless communication device policy, or the ISBE Model Cell Phone Policy released in August 2026. Either works, and the session is built so that arriving with the template alone costs you nothing.
• The name of your approved AI or writing platform. One segment asks what it does by default when a student opens it. Most districts have never checked.
• Check which clock you are on. Districts with a qualifying policy in place before July 28, 2026 may hold it through 2030–31 rather than conforming by 2027–28.