LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to require school districts to develop their own policies on the use of cellphones by students, avoiding a stricter statewide ban that had been sought by some lawmakers.

The Senate supported the bill in a vote of 28-9, with nine Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, and Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, chairman of the Michigan GOP, crossing over to join majority Democrats.

The Republican-controlled Michigan House has been preparing its own, more rigid bill on cellphones in schools. The House plan would prohibit students in grades kindergarten through fifth from having cellphones on school grounds and ban students in grades sixth through eighth from using phones during instructional time, lunch and recess.

Sen. Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia, the sponsor of the Senate measure, said she is hopeful that the Senate and House would ultimately meet somewhere in the middle on cellphone school policy.

"If you have a policy, you have to enforce it," Polehanki said of school districts. "If the parents are having problems with it, change it at the board level.

"But to say you need the state to step in and ... prescribe a policy that might not be right for your community, I just don't think that's a great rationale."

Under Polehanki's bill, districts would have to adopt cellphone policies that "seek to limit student cellphone use during school hours" — a flexible standard that would effectively grant the power to decide the issue to local school boards. The policies would have to detail "enforcement mechanisms" and be posted on the districts' websites, according to the proposal.

Opponents of Polehanki's measure have contended it doesn't go far enough and doesn't require districts to do anything more than they already have the power to do.

The nine Republican no votes came from Sens. Joe Bellino of Monroe, Jon Bumstead of North Muskegon, Kevin Daley of Lum, Roger Hauck of Mt. Pleasant, Michele Hoitenga of Manton, Dan Lauwers of Brockway Township, Jonathan Lindsey of Coldwater, Rick Outman of Six Lakes and Lana Theis of Brighton.

During a speech on the Senate floor, Theis labeled cellphones in schools an "extraordinary problem that needs to be addressed."

"I don't believe this is the answer," Theis said of Polehanki's bill. "I believe this is too permissive, and I don't see anything in law that would currently prohibit our schools from doing what's ... being requested in this bill."

Outman said he's heard from superintendents who've told him that their school districts already have "broad" cellphone policies and they've taken criticism from parents who want their children to have access to their cellphones.

"They would rather that we put in a policy that is statewide that has more teeth," Outman said of his local superintendents.

But the Michigan Association of School Boards previously testified in support of Polehanki's bill.

Her proposal would have to pass the House and gain Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's signature to become law.

In February, during her State of the State address, the Democratic governor called for passing "bipartisan legislation to limit the use of phones in class."

"We've seen encouraging data about how commonsense restrictions on phone use during class lead to more learning and less bullying," Whitmer said. "Kids listen, raise their hands and make more friends."

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