HILLSBOROUGH, Fla. – Now that students are back in school, ABC Action News is taking a closer look at the new cell phone policies in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

“Students will face much stricter cell phone rules,” said Laura Hine, chair of the Pinellas County School Board.

“There is a movement across the state, across the country, to restrict cell phones in classrooms unless teachers object,” said Van Ayres, the Hillsborough County school superintendent.

In Hillsborough County, elementary and middle school students only have access to their phones before and after school.

“And if the teacher you know needs his phone for something, he needs to put it away,” said Karen Perez, chair of the Hillsborough School Board.

The same applies to high school students, with the exception that they are allowed to use their phones during lunch break.

Similar rules apply in Pinellas County.

“Cell phones are turned off and out of sight all day from the first ring to the last,” Hine said.

There will also be more leniency for Pinellas County high school students if they miss class during the school day.

“No cell phones except during recess and lunch,” Hine said.

Representatives of both districts said they would now crack down on the rule because cell phones have become more of a distraction from learning in recent years.

“It’s social media. Everything that kids interact with is causing problems in our classrooms, during our school day,” Ayres said.

“It’s true that students actually only spend about 14% of their year in school. But we take that 14% very seriously,” Hine said.

In addition to this new policy, the Pinellas district will also implement a digital responsibility curriculum on electronic devices for grades 1-12.

“So yes, we as parents, we as schools can try to take the devices away to some extent, but we have to teach not only our students but ourselves how to best use them. How to engage them. How to use them for success. And how to mitigate the harm that we know they can do as well,” Hine said.

Both districts want to tighten cell phone rules and enforce them strictly. There will be consequences if students don’t follow them.

“We will be making sure every day that these cell phones are put away during the school day,” Ayres said.

“We need to have clear, consistent policies, strategies and consequences and make sure we implement them from day one so that we have the greatest possible success with these new strategies,” Hine said.