New state legislation won’t change much for the Bentonville School District, which is ahead of the game when it comes to cell phone bans and providing student meals.

Last week, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed two education-related bills into law. The new laws will provide free breakfast to all students beginning with the 2025-26 school year, and require districts to ban student access to cellphones while school is in session.

While school leaders are waiting on further direction from state officials regarding the new laws, the district doesn’t expect much to change.

While the new state legislation aims to provide free breakfast to all students, Bentonville's "Every Kid, Every Day" policy already ensures no student is left without a meal. If a student does not have enough money on prepaid meal cards, the school allows them to go into a negative balance. 

“Currently, there is a trend across the nation that when a child's lunch balance is in the red, they give them a separate meal,” said Leslee Wright, Bentonville School’s director of communications. “They still feed them, but it's obvious to everyone around them that they don't have the money to pay. We wanted to avoid that.”

The school will leave an automated message on the parent or guardian’s phone, letting them know the balance is negative, removing any interaction with the student regarding the financial status of their meal card.

“We created the ‘Every Kid, Every Day' program to remove the child from the financial conversation,” said Janet Schwanhausser, deputy superintendent of Bentonville Schools. “A child in the meal line receives a meal with no questions asked. Kids come to school to grow academically and emotionally. The conversation about payment is between the adults at school and the adults at home."

The school works to recoup the funds, but ends up losing money every year to unpaid balances. The district sells shirts and conducts other fundraisers to assist families who cannot pay, but these fundraisers aren't enough to cover the full cost, Schwanhausser said.

While most of the unpaid balances are from lunch, the new state legislation will offset a portion of the debt. The district's current negative meal balance is $28,995.

Donations to the lunch fund can be made by calling (479) 254-5006 (ask for Janet Schwanhausser).

When it comes to the statewide cellphone ban, the district has already explored different ways to limit cellphone usage in the classroom.

Bentonville West High piloted a program last school year that required cellphones to be stored at the beginning of class and retrieved at the end. 

Within the teaching staff at Bentonville West, 86% reported a positive impact in that academic year. The administration reported a 57% reduction in verbal or physical aggression offenses and a 51% reduction in drug-related offenses.

This year, teachers at both high schools have discretion on how to handle cellphones in the classroom. Wright said they will wait on further direction from state officials on if the new legislation will affect their current policies.

Last August, Gov. Sanders visited the Bentonville School District to announce a statewide phone-free initiative that provided participating districts with grants to pay for phone pouches used to store student cellphones during class time.

Bentonville Schools used the grant to incorporate the use of cellphone pouches for students in grades five through eight at the beginning of this school year.

Phone-free schools have been a policy priority for Sanders, citing a focus on students' mental health and emotional well-being. In her visit to Bentonville, Sanders said that the district has led the way with cellphone initiatives.

“We've been pretty much the poster child for this movement prior to the passing of the governor's (statewide ban),” Wright said.