Texas Assessment Program
Cell Phone Usage Policy

Students are not permitted to possess such items as cell phones or pagers during the time a state assessment is being conducted.  These items must remain turned off and given to the student’s assigned test administrator.  The student may retrieve the cell phone or pager as soon as they leave the testing environment.  Once the student leaves the testing environment, the student will follow the district cell phone policy.

A student in violation of this policy is subject to having their test scores invalidated and the incident reported to the Texas Education Agency, as well as having the device confiscated.  The confiscated cellular phone / paging device may be released to the student’s parent / guardian upon the payment of a $15 administrative fee made to the school.  (A “paging device” means a telecommunications device that emits an audible signal, vibrates, displays a message or otherwise summons or delivers a communication to the possessor, including cellular phones.)

According to TEA, the use of cell phones during testing is not permitted for the following reasons:

-Making or receiving calls disrupts the testing environment by disturbing other students.

-Making or receiving calls could compromise the confidentiality of the test.

-The text messaging and camera features of cell phones could be used to compromise the confidentiality of the test.