When Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed House Bill 2484 into law on April 14, requiring schools to create a policy addressing student phone and internet use on campus, many districts were ahead of the game.
The Fountain Hills Unified School District was one of those districts.
In fact, FHUSD was apparently so far ahead of the 2025 law, no one who attended an April 22 informal town hall on the topic volunteered how long a district cell phone policy had been in place.
“At least since 2016 or 2017” was what Superintendent Dr. Cain Jagodzinski estimated, based on his tenure in the district, noting he doesn’t recall it being new at any point.
That should make things easier for FHUSD, which has an elaborate policy and enforcement already in place. The town hall was to get feedback from administrators and parents and to discuss ways the policy could be amended and more evenly enforced.
“One key is that now, we can call this a state requirement” in discussions with parents and students, Jagodzinski said.
Under HB 2484, schools must enforce commonsense policies governing student access to the internet, restrict access to social media platforms, and limit cell phone use during the school day.
The superintendent called his wife, Dr. Tamara Jagodzinski, to the podium. She’s a principal at a Scottsdale middle school, Tonalea, that implemented a device ban mid-year a few years ago.
Tamara Jagodzinski and her staff had to deal with a sudden and dramatic policy shift FHUSD teachers and students won’t have to endure.
“There were definitely some growing pains,” she told the small group at the town hall. “Kids were mad. We had to narrow the scope on what was banned, what was allowed, what we were going to do about it.”
Tamara Jagodzinski said a big key for her school was establishing “non-negotiables” and being consistent as a staff in enforcement.
“We had to weed out occurrences of teachers softening up and saying ‘OK, use your phone, but don’t tell anybody’ type of exceptions,” she said.
There were about 10 parents at the town hall, in addition to all five FHUSD Governing Board members and the middle school and high school principals. Cain Jagodzinski made a point of saying he didn’t invite the McDowell Mountain Elementary School principal to the town hall, as he said the district doesn’t have the problem of devices being brought on to that K-5 campus.
The superintendent went over the policy and explained how it works in everyday life, including the “three-strike” consequences for violations. He said if there are changes he or anyone would propose and the board adopt in the months ahead, he and other administrators are “leaning toward being more aggressive” in stopping phone use.
New technology brings new challenges in writing and enforcing device rules. For example, FHHS Principal Barrie Pinto pointed out an art class requires use of camera phones to photograph and upload images; there are QR codes that Google Chromebooks won’t photograph by design.
Tamara Jagodzinski said her school’s “non-negotiables” were updated to include checking for use of Airpods or other tiny headphones to listen to a device during school. This led to all headphones being banned and no hoods — used to conceal headphone use — are to be up during school.
Superintendent Jagodzinski passed out note cards in which those in attendance could fill out to ask questions or provide feedback after the town hall.
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Jason W. Brooks
Associate Editor
Jason W. Brooks is a News editor for the Daily Independent and the Chandler Independent.
He covers the Chandler area for both yourvalley.net and the monthly print edition while writing for and assisting in the production of the Daily Independent.
Brooks is a well-traveled journalist who has documented life in small American communities in nearly all U.S. time zones.
Born in Washington, D.C. and raised there and in suburban Los Angeles, he has covered community news in California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska and northern Arizona.
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